a fevor and therefore her body being dissected in open view but her head under colour of respect untouched it was divulged that by the testimony of skilful Physitians she died of a fevor as Davila relates the story The next to be made sure of in particular was that brave person Colinius a man who though through necessity ingaged in them yet detected out of an innate hatred of such broils the late Civil Wars even to his own ruine and destruction at last as Thuanus upon several occasions often notes and as real a well-wisher of his King and Countreys good as any Subject in France as appeared more fully in some instances discovered after his death But the King and Queen-mother by the arts of the Guisian Faction being prepossessed of a contrary opinion of him after all their fraudulent expressions of favour to him caused him to be shot by a retainer of the Guisian Family â—a p. 367. Thu. l. 52. to secure themselves from the imputation of so odious a fact but being thereby only maimed not killed out-right they presently according to their former dissimulations repair to his lodgings to visit him and with great shew of sorrow for the accident appoint him Physitians and Chirurgeons and a guard for his defence and order a strict search for the apprehension of the assasine This done upon the eve of St. Bartholomew being Sunday Da. p. 3â—1 372. the Duke of Guise by order from the King having about twilight given direction to the Provost des Marchand the chief head of the people of Paris to provide 2000 armed men with every one a white sleeve on their left arm and white crosses in their hats to be ready upon notice instantly to execute the Kings commands and that the Sheriffs of the several Wards should also be ready and cause lights upon the ringing of the bell of the Palace-clock to be set up in every window himself at the hour prefixed with the Duke of Aumale and Monsieur d'Angoulesme the King's bastard-Brother and other Commanders and Souldiers to the number of 300 went to the Admiral Colinius his house and having forcibly entred the Court-gate kept by a few of the King of Navar 's Halbardiers and the servants of the house who were all killed without mercy they likewise kill the Admiral himself and threw his body out of the window Felinius his son-in-law with other persons of quality and all the rest that had relation to him This done Monsieur d'O Colonel of the King's Guards calls out the principal Protestants that were in the Louvre one by one who being come into the Court were all killed by the Souldiers that stood in two long ranks with their arms ready for that purpose there died divers Noblemen and persons of great quality and others to the number of 200. At the same time the bell gave the sign and those who were prepared for the deed having received order what to do fell a killing the Protestants throughout all the lodgings and houses where they were dispersed and made an infinite slaughter of them without any distinction of age sex or condition and of many of the Papists among the rest And those who fled were pursued by the Duke of Guise with a great many horse and foot and being overtaken some without shooes some without saddles some without bridles but all more or less unprovided were scattered and cut off There were killed in the City that day and the next above 10000 whereof above 500 were Barons Knights and Gentlemen who had held the chiefest employments in the War and were now purposely met together from all parts to honor the King of Navar 's Marriage Thu. l. 52. A sad time it was what through the noise and clatter of those who every where ran to killing and carrying away of their prey and the doleful groans and sad cryes of those who were slain and murthered without mercy young and old rich and poor men and women women great with child and others with their little children sucking at their breasts and in the dead time of the night plucked out of their beds and houses what with the horrid spectacle of dead bodies thrown out of the windows and trod about the streets and the channels running down with streams of bloud into the River And yet so little moved were the Court Ladies with all this that without either fear or shame in an impudent manner they beheld and stood gazing upon the naked bodies of the Noblemen and Gentlemen which lay on heaps before the Court The day after the Admirals death Da. 3â—â— the Duke of Anjou with the Regiment of the Guards went through all the City and Suburbs causing those houses to be broken open that made any resistance but all the Protestants were either already dead or else being terrified had put white crosses in their hats the general mark of the Papists endeavouring by that means and by hiding themselves to save their lives but being pointed at in the streets by any one or discovered any other way they were without mercy torn in pieces by the people and cast into the River The day before this terrible execution the King dispatched Posts into divers parts of the Kingdom commanding the Governors of Cities and Provinces to do the like And the same night at Meaux and the days ensuing at Orleans Rouen Bourges Angiers Tholouze and many other places but above all at Lyons there was a most bloudy slaughter of the Protestants without any respect of age sex or quality of persons Most sad and lamentable stories says Davila might be here related for this cruelty was prosecuted in so many several places with such variety of accidents against people of all conditions as it was credibly reported that there were slain above forty thousand Protestants in few days The King himself as In vita Greg. 13. Cicarela relates told the Pope's Nuncio that seventy thousand and more were slain Some days after the King dispatched his Grand Provost with all diligence to seize upon Colinius his Wife and Children but his eldest Son with the widow-Lady his Mother-in-law and others being already fled secretly to Geneva the younger children both male and female were condemned to death in their tender years About two days after the Massacre was finished at Paris a Jubilee was there appointed and a publick Thanksgiving kept by the King the whole Court and a great confluence of the people for the business so happily managed according to their wish and desire Thu. l. 52.53 In memory whereof St. Bartholomew's day was by a decree of the Parliament of Paris appointed to be observed as an Anniversary Thanksgiving-day 46. Thu. l. 51.53 This horrible act of most barbarous and inhumane cruelty is highly extolled by the Italian Writers as a good and laudable deed and the politick contrivance of it as most worthy the subtil wit of a magnanimous Prince And certain it is that the news of
for this many years never had a better That Anjou indeed was more averse to the Protestant party but that hatred would now cease even out of respect to the affinity contracted with the King of Navar. For the rest the League entred into with England and that which the King was now making with the Protestant Princes of the Empire did sufficiently shew how he stood affected to the Protestants when as he would have one of the Sons of the Elector Palatine in his retinue and some one of the English Nobles as Leicester or Burgleii who were most forward for Religion Moreover he had given his Faith to the Prince of Orange and Nassau his Brother concerning aids against the Spaniards and that a great supply was preparing in the place of those who were routed under Jeulis their leader That John Galeacius Fulgosius who lately returned from Florence did assure them that Cosunus would lend the King two hundred thousand Aurei towards that War That the King's Ambassador did carefully pry into the counsels of the Duke of Alva and daily acquaint the King with them That this he knew every day from the King That the Navy that Philip Strossy and Polinius Garda do command at Broage and upon the Coasts of Poictou was not prepared to any other use but to disturb the Spanish Fleet which being done it shall go to help the Prince of Orange at Flushing As for himself and his own particular safety all might be secure of that for that he through the King's means is reconciled to the Guises each engaging their Faith to the King that they would neither of them hereafter impeach one the other Lastly that the King did all he could to make Peace at home and War abroad and that he might transfer the War into the Low-Countreys and against the Spaniards Wherefore he prayed the Author of the writing and others that are of his mind that they would no more with these suspitions trouble his mind which was taken up with more weighty businesses and better designs but rather that they would joyning their prayers with his beg of God that he would prosper things so well begun and bring them at last to an happy end for the good of the Church and Kingdom 4. The same things were written to Coligni from the Rochellers which he did in as friendly manner take off with all moderation and constancy Therefore when they could not divert him from that mind they set upon the King of Navar with Letters dated 6 of the Eids of July July 10th in which they dehort him upon the same accounts that he should take care of himself and not go to Paris He was then at the Nuptials †Vid. l. 50. p. 787. of Henricus Condaeus his Unckle's Son and Mary of Cleve his near Kinswoman which were celebrated at Blandia a Castle of Jo. Roan Marchioness of Rotelin who was Mother to Frances of Aurleans * Vid. l. 35. p. 559. last Wife to Lewis of Conde within the jurisdiction of Melun Therefore he despising the warnings of his Friends the Nuptials of the Prince of Conde being finished comes to Paris with him and a great retinue of Protestants in the beginning of August where new delays are purposely invented by the Queen for whereas at first there was hope given of favour to be obtained from the Pope by the Cardinal of Lorain who was then at Rome to remove the obstacle of proximity and difference in Religion a Breve was brought to Charles Cardinal of Burbon designed to finish the business wherewith notwithstanding he said he he was not satisfied therefore he desired another more full might be sent from Rome wherein it might be more amply provided for him Therefore the King laid the fault of the delay upon the Cardinal of Burbon who he said by way of scorn was tied up by superstition and I know not what scruples of conscience and by that means great injury was done to his Margarite so he called his Sister who bore it very impatiently to have the fruit of her so long expected joy deferred 5. When in the mean time Coligni pressed that the publick proclaiming of the Low-Countrey War so often deliberated about and approved of and now whether he would or not begun might be no longer deferred he again made delays and declined it and often replied to him importuning him that he had not any Counsellor or Officer of his Army to whose faithfulness industry and diligence he could commit so great an affair For some were wholly addicted to the party of the Guises others had other faults of their own of his Secretaries there was only Bernardus Fiza whom he could entrust with this secret At last it was agreed that the affair should be committed to Momorancy and Fiza with which shews of unfeigned familiarity as he took it and ingenuous freedom Coligni being deceived would not perswade himself any thing otherwise than of truly Kingly virtue or think hardly of the most excellent King 6. Amidst these delays those things as it should seem being altogether composed about which before there was a difference among the Conspirators there came Letters by secret comport from the King's Ambassador with the Pope in which the King is certified of a dispensation now granted and shortly to be sent from Rome by Post wherein the scrupulous conscience of Burbon was fully satisfied therefore when upon the 16th of the Kalends of September August 17th they were contracted by Cardinal Borbon in the Louvre the next day after the Nuptials were celebrated An high Scaffold is erected before the gates of the great Church by which they descended by stairs unto a lower Scaffold which being on every side railed in to keep off the multitude did lead through the Church to the inner apartment commonly called the Chore. From thence another Scaffold encompassed with rails did receive those that went out of the Chore toward the left gate which reached to the Bishop's Palace thither came out of the Louvre with all Royal Pomp and most magnificent shew the King the Queen-Mother with the Brethren the Dukes of Anjou and Alanson the Guises the Colonels of the Horse the chief Peers of the Kingdom leading along the Bride who lodged that night in the Bishop's Palace And from the other part the King of Navar with the Princes of Conde and Contie his Cousins Coligni Admiral of the Sea Franciscus Count de la Roche-fou-eault and a great company of the Protestant Nobles who came together out of all Provinces of the Kingdom When the King had ascended to that higher Scaffold the Ceremonies in manner as was agreed being performed by Cardinal Borbon the King and Navar with his Party came by the lower Scaffold into the Chore where having placed his Wife before the great Altar to hear Mass he with Coligni and Count de la Roche-fou-eault and the other Nobles of his Retinue went into the Bishop's Palace by the contrary door
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 c. What then would he have said and what must we think of this so far transcendent Inhumane and Antichristian Powder Plot But he goes on Certain it is that even about this present time there have been suborned and sent into this Realm divers persons some English some Irish corrupted by Money and Promises and Resolved and Conjured by Priests in Confession to have executed that most wretched and horrible Fact Of which number certain have been taken and some have suffered as Patrick Cullen an Irish Fencer and afterward Ri. Williams and Edmond York for whose encouragement and reward an Assignation of forty thousand Crowns under the hand of Stephano Ibarra the Kings Secretary at Bruxels was deposited with Holt a Jesuit who kissing the Consecrated Host swore that the money should be paid as soon as the murther was committed and engaged them two by Oath upon the Holy Sacrament to perform it Camd. Anno 1594 1595. And some are spared because they have with great sorrow confessed these attempts and detected their suborners there were also designed at the same time for this purpose as the others confessed Foulis l. 7. c. 7. one Tipping Edmund Garret an Ensign with a Wallon and a Burgundian and one Young and perhaps some of them might be taken and spared But says Sir Francis Among the number of these execrable undertakers there was none so much built and relyed upon by the Great Ones of the other side as was the Physician Lopez And then he proceeds in the particular relation how one Manuel Andrada who had revolted from his own King of Portugal Don Antonio to the King of Spain having before won Doctor Lopez sworn Physician of her Majesties Household to the King of Spains service coming freshly out of Spain treated with Lopez touching the empoysoning of the Queen which he undertook for fifty thousand Crowns but staying the execution till by Letters from Spain he should have Assurance of the payment of the Money those Letters the one from the Count de Fuentes and the other from the Secretary Juara which were delivered to the messenger by the Count 's own hand being happily intercepted the Practise was discovered and the Great Service whereof should arise a Vniversal Benefit to the whole world as the Letters expressed it very opportunely disappointed and Lopez with Em. Louys and Ferrera de Gama whereof the one managed the business abroad and the other resided here to give correspondence were apprehended and arraigned who upon these Letters and their own confession being found guilty were condemned and about three months after executed at Tiburne as Camden tells us The like practise we find again some few years after repeated in Spain whence by Walpole the Jesuit some time Rector or at least of great authority at Villadolit where as I take it the Spanish Court was at that time kept Edw. Squire was sent over to poyson the Queen under pretense of redeeming Spanish Captives being by that Jesuit encouraged upon the score of merit with promises of Eternal Salvation and his blessing Camb. Ann. 1598. out the same Providence still preserved her 23. And to these pitiful and base unworthy Arts did the Grave Spanish Counsels and high vaunts at last descend and this was a fair Introduction to the Contrivance of this Master-piece and last refuge of the Powder-plot which from what hath been said before we have great reason to believe did shortly after succeed Now if these things be confidered and therewith the State and Condition of England and Spain at that time which we may find well compared to our hand by Sir Francis Bacon in his considerations touching a war with Spain it must needs be a very weak and childish thing for any man to imagine that Spain should have been so inconsiderate as to have had any thought of Invading England at that time notwithstanding any combination of whatsoever party ready to receive him here of Papists and discontented persons whereof he had made greater preparations against the Northern Rebellion and 88. did he not build upon some such mystery of the Powder Plot. And indeed if we well examine the Preparations then made or designed both abroad and at home we shall find them rather proportionable to second some such feat as this when the King and the Nobility and a great part of the Gentry were destroyed and the whole Kingdom under so great a consternation and confusion as must there upon unavoidably have ensued than otherwise to have atchieved any conquest of this Nation And if this was so that all did depend upon some such secret machination it
all these oppressions and Injuries though they provoked some little tumults of the vulgar yet were they not sufficient to produce and necessitate another Civil War which not only the Spaniard desired as well for his own security to divert a War from himself as in order to his further designs but also the Cardinal of Lorain his Nephews now growing up though his brother the Duke was slain and therefore besides these other means were thought on to do that at least if they should fail to make way for their ends by taking off those who most stood in their way And to this purpose besides some lesser Confederacies for an irreconcilable war against the Protestants there was a Conspiracy which was begun indeed by the Duke of Guise in his life time but renued again and carried on by the same faction with the King of Spain for the cutting off of those of the Nobility who favored the Protestant doctrine and particularly for surprising the Queen of Navarre and her Children the next heirs to the Crown of France after the familie of Valois who were all children and in their power already and clapping them into the Spanish Inquisition But this being discovered by the Queen of Spain in receit to her mother the Queen mother of France who easily perceived what was aimed at and by others to the Queen of Navarre and so prevented the Legates of Spain the Pope and Savoy were by the means of the Cardinal of Lorain sent to perswade the King to admit the Councel of Trent in France and to that end to invite him to a Consultation of the Catholick Princes at Nancie in Lorain to enter into a Holy League for the extirpation of the Hereticks but the Queen mother neither liking the admission of the Councel nor to engage so openly against the Protestants the Legates were under some other pretenses dismissed Wherefore the next year the King being declared out of his Minority and with his Mother making a progress through all parts of the Kingdom an Enterview between them and the Queen of Spain accompanied with the Duke of Alva is so ordered that a more secret Consultation is held at Bayonne for the extirpation of the hereticks Jan. 1565. Davila l. 3. Thu. l. 37. and a Holy League made between the two Crowns for mutual assistance to that end and at last it is concluded according to the opinion of Alva which he said was the judgement of King Philip to cut off the chief heads of the Protestants and then in imitation of the * 30. May. 1282 When the French were all at an instant without distinction of age or â—eâ— cruelly slaughtered as were the Danâ—s here in England 282. years before that Sicilian Vespers to slaughter all the Protestants to the last man and because the intended Assembly at Moulins was already talked on that it would be best to make a slaughter of the Nobility assembling there from all parts and upon a sign given to exterminate the rest through out France This Thuanus relates from Jo. Bapt. Hadrianus who he saith wrote his history with very great fidelity and prudence and as is very likely extracted many things from the Commentaries of the Duke of Tuscany Father to the Queen Mother But as he further relates either because they did not all meet there or that for some other cause it seemed unseasonable that business was deferred to another time and was seven years after as was then continued put in execution at Paris at a more convenient place and occasion But from this time the Prince of Conde and the Colinies being admonished by their friends at Court of these bloody Counsels and thereupon suspitious of the Court designs were more cautious and wary Yet was Colinius at the Assembly at Moulins in January following Thu. l. 39. and there by solemn Oath purged himself of the death of the Duke of Guise and possibly might then make some further discovery into these secret counsels which if as is said they were at first designed to be put in execution there seem by the succeeding History to have been deferred for want of sufficient Forces ready and of fit instruments For afterward by the advice of Alva Thu. l. 4â— 6000 Swissers were hired and levies of Souldiers made in Champain and Picardy under pretence of guarding the Frontiers against Alva But this pretence quickly vanished by Alva's withdrawing from those parts as it was afterwards more fully detected of fraud and collusion by his sending them Forces in the War soon after following nevertheless the Swissers were still retained 43. Whereupon Thu. l. 42. all very well knowing that there was a better accord between the Courts of France and Spain especially since the enterview at Bayonne than that there needed any such Guards the Prince of Conde Colinius Andelot his Brother and the rest of the Protestant Nobility and Gentry began to be very sensible of their near approaching danger of ruine and after a long patience under Slaughters Banishments Calumnies loss of their Estates and Fortunes to consult together what course might be taken for the safety and preservation not only of their estates and liberties but of the lives of themselves and their wives and children They had seen and felt the Edicts made on their behalf partly eluded by the interpretations of new Edicts and Proscripts partly violated by the malice and iniquity of Judges and Presidents of the Provinces injuries and mischiefs every where done to them and even the murthers of no small number connived at and permitted to go unpunished And besides all this they had certain intelligence of those secret consultations held for their destruction and of other secret counsels held by Ambassadors with the Pope who fomented the hatred of those two Kings against them and besides the speeches and threats frequently given out that they were not like long to enjoy their Assemblies they saw plainly that those preparations which after the Cities which they inhabited were dismantled and Forts therein built and Garrisons put into them were at first made under such pretext as was no way probable and now continued without any at all were designed against them and were also informed thereof by intelligence from their friends Sures p. 768. and by letters intercepted from Rome and Spain Notwithstanding after a consultation or two it was resolved by common consent of all to use all mild and gentle means and therefore since now there remained no further pretence to retain them the Prince of Conde by his friends desires that since Alva is now retired into Belgium the Swissers may be dismissed But when instead of being dismissed or retained only to guard the Frontiers they found them daily march on nearer to the heart of the Kingdom and had further notice from the Court of their designs they at last assemble in great confusion and though every one saw the danger which hanged over their heads and was now ready to
took deeper root and flourished more notwithstanding all their opposition and persecutions She while with rare moderation and a generous plain-dealing constancy and resolution established the Reformed Religion both easily and happily attained her end and was her self established in her Throne and in a long happy and prosperous Reign as long as all theirs from the beginning of their persecutions preserved from all the secret plots and machinations aâ—â— open rebellions and assaults of her enemies made victorious over all and at last brought to her grave in peace and in a good old age leaving her Kingdoms in peace and in a flourishing condition and a blessed and glorious memory behind her while they were cut off in the flower or middle of their age and left their Kingdom embroiled in Civil Wars Confusion and Misery and an infamous memory of their no less unsuccesful than perfidious and barbarous actions 55. Nor was this distinguishing Providence thus visible only between her and those who persecuted the Reformed Religion but also between her and those who deserted the same as is to be seen in the next succeeding King of France Henr. 4. the greatest part of whose Reign was contemporary with her See before Sect. 41. p. 67. and in his Father before him Antony King of Navar who being drawn in by the Pope's Legate and Guises in hopes to recover his Kingdom of Navar or satisfaction for it to desert the Protestants and become Head of the Popish party within the space of about one year after ended his life by a shot before Rouen Had he lived longer says * P. 22. Perefix the Hugonots had without doubt been ill dealt with in France But having received his deaths-wound he became more †Thu. l. 33. solicitous for his own salvation than for his Kingdom for which he had thus wavered in his Religion and at last declared that if he recovered he would openly embrace the Protestant Profession and live and die in it His son Henry 4. of France was bred up from his childhood in the Reformed Religion and when he was grown up * 15â—â— professed himself Head of that party and so continued till his †Thu. l. 45. â—â—â— unhappy Marriage with a Popish Lady Margaret Sister to Charles 9. then King of France which though for its warrant it had the specious colour and pretence of confirming the Pacification and begetting and establishing a better accord between the two parties by so near an alliance between the two Heads of them yet proved as it was intended by the others a snare to the destruction of the chief persons and of great numbers of the rest of his own party and to himself not only unsuccesful in respect of his wife and that not so much through her sterility as her inconstancy and unfaithfulness to his bed but also a snare whereby after he had seen the lives of his best friends and of great numbers of innocent people of his own Religion most barbarously and inhumanely taken away he was himself forced for the saving of his own life to change his Religion in shew and appearance at least But this being by constraint Thu. l. 96. and only in appearance for Religion as was well perceived by Henr. 3. after he had received his deaths-wound which is planted in mens minds by God cannot be commanded or forced by men Upon the first opportunity he returned again to the open profession of that Religion which in the mean time he retained in his heart and constantly professed and maintained the same till after the descent of the Crown of France to him This happened very seasonable for him in many respects being then not a child or youth unexperienced in the World but of mature age about 35. and firm judgment well experienced in affairs both Military and Civil of State and Government being then reconciled to and in perfect amity with the deceased King who upon his death-bed Thu. l. 69. acknowledged him for his lawful Successor recommended the Kingdom to him and exhorted the Lords there present to acknowledg him for their lawful Sovereign notwithstanding his Religion and obey him accordingly being then not in Bearn or the remoter parts of the Kingdom with small or no forces but before the chief City of it in the head of a great Army under his command many of those in the Army who disliked his Religion yet being by the consideration of his undoubted right the recommendation of the deceased King and their own fresh experience of his virtue since his coming to the Army reconciled to his person acknowledging his sovereignty and submitting to his obedience now not as General but as their lawful and undoubted Prince This was 20 years after he had first professed himself Head of the Protestants 13 years after he had again returned to the profession of that Religion wherein he had been bred and educated when he had been all this while preserved notwithstanding all the power of France against him and had withstood all the tentations which after the death of Alancon whereby he became next heir to the Crown of France could invite him to change his Religion and when after all opposition he was as it were led by the hand to the possession of the Kingdom Yet was he not so entirely possessed of it but that there was still matter and occasion left him to make him sensible of that Providence which having preserved him all this while had at last raised him to the Throne and to exercise his dependance upon the same for the future for his entire possession of the Kingdom He was like David after many and long trials advanced to the Throne but yet like him not presently put into the full possession of the Kingdom For the Leaguers who thought his being an Heretick as they reputed him was a sufficient disability to his right to the Crown thought the same a sufficient warrant for them to keep him from it and to continue the rebellion against him which they had begun against his predecessor And to remove or prevent all scruple of Conscience in that respect Thu. l. 98. Foul. 8. c. 7. the Colledge of Sorbon gave them their solemn resolution May 7. 1590. That they who opposed him should merit much before God and Men and if they resisted so mindful were they of the Apostles Doctrine Rom. 13. to the effusion of their bloud should obtain a reward in Heaven and an immarcessible or never-fading Crown of Martyrdom And lest this should not be sufficient they institute a Prâ—cessiâ—n which was made in the presence of the Pope's Legate Cardinal Bellarnâ—ne and all the Bishops who came with him from Italy wherein Rose Bishop of Senlis and the Prior of the Carthusians holding in one hand a Cross and in the other a Halberd led the Van the Fathers of the Capucins Foliacens Paulians Franciscans Dominicans Carmelites following in order all accoutred their Cowles hanging back upon their
Pag. 10. l. 12. to conceive Or rather being more particular secrets and more worthy of observation they are reserved for private conference with his Majesty as not fit to be committed to paper as he saith c. 27. sub sin Pag. 57. l. 2. Spain for three weeks before troubled with a perpetual flux of blood through all the passages of his body Perefix p. 163. and at last if not A Discourse concerning the Original of the Powder Plot. Sect. 1. ALthough several Relations of this Conspiracy have been long since written and published in English both by several writers of the History of those times and others who have inserted the same among other Historical Relations as Stow in his Annals pag. 874. Speed in his History of Great Britain l. 10. s 31. The Appendix to the Book of Martyrs Fuller in his Church History Bishop Carleton in his Historical Collection of Deliverances and of late by Mr. Foulis in his History of Popish Treasons lib. 10. cap. 2. And also alone as King James his Discourse of the manner of the Discovery of the Powder Treason Printed in quarto 1605. but without his name to it and since in his works 1616. pag. 223. and the Proceedings against the late Traitors Printed in quarto 1606. whereof neither is more than what the title doth import and the latter inlarged with long Speeches which possibly may seem tedious to the Reader and it may be some others yet because many as well for the rare and admirable contrivance and discovery of the Plot as because we are all obliged to the Annual Commemoration of it may be desirous to read some Relation of it who yet may not be willing to purchase those larger works and those Relations of it which have been Printed alone being now long since out of Print and therefore rarely to be met with It was thought convenient to publish this Translation out of Thuanus rather than to reprint any of the other and that for these Reasons 1. Because it seems to be more compleate than most or any one of the other Relations which have yet been Printed in English whether alone or incidentally in larger works 2. But especially in respect of the Great Authority of the Author a person not only of great Quality and Place in his Country Privy Counsellor to the King of France and President of the Supreme Senate of that Kingdom but of known and confessed Candor Impartiality Faithfulness and Exactness as an Historian And being one who lived and dyed a Catholick in the Communion of the Church of Rome his Authority hath in that respect some advantage above any of the other Relations which have been written by any of the Reformed party which of it self may be sufficient to resute the Impudence and vanity of all such as would have had the world believe that it was the contrivance either of the * This bloudy design found in the hands of the malefactors was notwithstanding father'd upon the Puritans as Nero did the burning of Rome upon the Christians by some impudent and cunning Jesuits Which some years after I had opportunity at Bruges in Flanders to make Weston and old Jesuit active in the Powder plot ingenuously to confess Wilson ibid. Puritans V. Speed Sect. 48. Wilsons History of King James pag. 32. Foulis pag. 690. or of Cecil the then Secretary to draw those unhappy Gentlemen into it V. Foulis pag. 694. The Papists Apol. answered pag. 31-33 edit 1667. the contrary whereof may easily be perceived in the series of this Relation And indeed the first of these projects was extinguished almost with the plot and the other hath been long since sufficiently disproved and the plot it self confessed by some and defended magnified and gloried in by others of that party and now scarce denyed by any to have been of their own contrivance so that more need not now be said as to that particular though the following considerations if need were might be made use of in that respect 2. This design of Blowing up the Prince and People together hath been commonly taken to have been the contrivance of Catesby and of no ancienter Original than their despair of foreign assistance upon their last negotiation with Spain Of that mind seems our Historian here to have been So also Speed Sect. 33 37. Proceed E 4. pag. 3. And the truth is there is scarce to be found in print any direct and express proof of other author and contriver or more ancient original of it though possibly we may ere long see it further proved to have been designed in the Queens days against her but upon further consideration of her age not likely according to the course of nature to live long deferred till the coming in of King James In the mean time it may be remembred what is often seen in Judicatories and Tryals of Causes both Civil and Criminal that those things and works of darkness which are carried on and managed with so much secrecy and caution that no direct proof can be made against them are notwithstanding often discovered and brought to light by a heedful and circumspect observation and comparing of circumstances insomuch that the evidence of the truth which is by this means made out is not seldom more satisfactory to all present than the direct and express proof and testimonies of witnesses which many times prove false even then when they seem to be most full and punctual And therefore to prove this contrivance proceeded from other heads than Catesby 's alone and was of longer standing than hath been commonly thought what is yet wanting in direct proofs may in some measure be made up by the consideration of the following Circumstances 3. And first it may be noted that though Catesby be the first of all these Conspirators taken in this plot that did propose it to the rest for ought appears by what was discover'd at their examination and tryals yet doth it not thence follow but it might have been before proposed to him being the most active of them by some other nor doth it any way appear that it was of his own only devising as to omit other reasons is manifest from their attempt who would have fathered it upon Cecil as a trick to ensnare those gentlemen for otherwise there would have been no ground or colour for that pretense 4. It may 2. be remembred that this was not the first time that this means by blowing up by Gunpowder hath been proposed by confederates of that party for the destruction and murther of our Princes For it had been long before proposed by one Moody to be laid under Queen Elizabeth's bed and secretly fired Camden Anno 1587. principio So that this may seem to have been but a further improvement of a former project 5. But 3. to come nearer to this present business There is a passage of the Jesuite Del Rio 6. Disquis Magic cap. 1. edit Lovan 1600. which with the concurrence of
men and the Spainard money But this storm was blown over into Africa where Stucley and part of his men were slain However the next year is sent into Ireland from Spain James Fitz-Morice with some Companies of Souldiers Thu. lib. 68. and with them from the Pope Nic. Sanders our Author above mentioned with Authority Legatine and a consecrated Banner and to them the years after San Joseph with seven-hundred Italian and Spanish Souldiers Thu. lib. 70. and arms for five thousand more to arm the Irish and some store of money these being but * Bacons Observations the forerunners of a greater Power which by treaty between the King of Spain and the Pope should have followed and the Pope to animate the Irish sends them his Breve with Apostolical Benediction wherein reciting that he had of late years by his Letters exhorted them to the Recovery of their Liberty 〈◊〉 Hist Catnol Hibern and Defence of it against the Hereticks c. and that they might more cheerfully do it had granted to all such as should be any ways assisting therein a Plenary Pardon and Forgiveness of All their Sins he now grants to all such whom he also exhorts requires and urges in the Lord to indeavour to help against the said hereticks the same Plenary Indulgence and Remission of their Sins which those who fight against the Turk do obtain And to this expedition the Pope promised a Crucias and 1000000. Aurea But all these with their Irish Confederates the Earl of Desmond his brothers and their party were very happily defeated by the Queens forces at the very instant when divers ships upon the Sea were bringing them more forces and assistance and the Popes Legate Sanders died miserably of hunger and as some say mad upon the ill success of the Rebellion 29. About this time the Seminaries began to swarm and because the Bull of Pius v. Sanders p. 372. Camd. p. 180. and not yet sufficiently produced its intended and expected effect even with a great part of the Papists themselves who seeing the neighbour Popish Princes and Provinces not to abstein from their usual commerce with the Queen continued still in their Obedience to her and were offended at the Bull as a mischievous snare to them therefore for their satisfaction it is Decreed at Rome Thu. lib. 74. Camd. an 1580. 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 Camâ—â— an 81. Tâ—â— 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
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. ◠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
proved dangerous to the Holy See But he made them amends for it afterward though without any expense of his Treasure for he sent out his Excommunication against the King of France himself although a man of an irreconcilable hatred against the Protestants and who had been a promoter of the Parisian Massacre unless within ten days he should set at liberty the Cardinal Bourbon whom the Rebels desired to make head of their party This was published in May and the 1. of August after was the King murthered by James Clement a Jacobin who was thus resolved in the Case by the * F. Edm. Burgoin who was afterwards excuted for it drawn in pieces by four horses his quarters burned his ashes scattered in the wind Danita l. 10. p. 857. Prior of his Covent that if he undertook it not out of hatred or desire of private revenge but inflamed with the love of God for Religion and the good of his Country he might not only do it with a safe Conscience but should merit much before God and without doubt if he should die in the act his soul would ascend to the Quires of the Blessed and as some say he was likewise encouraged by F. Commelet and other Jesuites This fact of Clement was highly extolled in France both in Sermons and Printed books and the Leaguers had that opinion of his Martyrdom for he was presently killed in the place and afterward pulled to pieces and his body burned that they came to the place and scraped up the very dust and earth whereon any of his blood lighted as Sacred Relicks and put it into a Vessel in which they came intending to carry it to Paris and there erect a Monument of his Martyrdom ad adorationem but by a vehement wind which suddenly arose both vessel and passengers were all drowned not one escaping and the relicks cast away Nor was the fact less extolled at Rome even by the Pope himself in a Premeditated Speech in the Consistory wherein he not only preferred that wicked wretch before Eleazar and Judith but most impiously and blasphemously compared his fact for the greatness and admirableness of it to the Mystery of the Incarnation and Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour The King had caused the Duke of Guise who was head of the Rebels to be slain and this was one main matter which incensed the Pope against him Thu. l. 94. For the Pope had agreed with Guise in secret to marry his Niece to the Prince of Jonvil Guise his son and heir and to depose the King thrust him into a Monastery and compel him by the Popes authority to renounce his right to the Kingdom and to set up Guise the father King in his place But how zealous and jealous he was for the Dignity and Authority of the Holy See is worth our further notice in an instance related by a good Catholick the learned Civil Lawyer William Barclay in his book De Potestate Papae dedicated to Pope Clement VIII None of all the writers of the Popes part saith he hath either more diligâ—ntly collected or more ingeniously proposed or more smartly and subtilely concluded their reasons and arguments for the Popes Authority than the Eminent Divine Bellarmine who although he attributed as much as with honesty he could and indeed more than he ought to have done to the Authority of the Pope in Temporals yet could he not satisfie the Ambition of that most Imperious man Sixtus v. who affirmed that he held a Supreme Power over All Kings and Princes of the whole Earth and all People and Nations delivered to him not by humane but Divine Institution In so much that he was very near by his Papal Censure to have abolished to the great detriment of the Church all the works of that Doctor which at this day oppose heresie with very great success as the Fathers of that Order of which Bellarmine was have seriously told me cap. 13. But enough of Sixtus By whom for example we may guess by these fruits what likelyhood there is that he and such as he whereof there hath been no small number Popes since the tenth Age especially that Seculum Infelix when with a great Eclipse of Learning the Popes of Rome as even Bellarmine noteth degenerated from the Piety of the Ancients were partakers of and directed by that Holy Spirit which God giveth to them that obey him to conduct them in all truth or rather the Spirit of the world the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience whose works they have done 35. The three next succeeding Popes Vrban 7. Gregory 14. and Innocent 9. did not all of them live out half three years from the death of this and therefore we cannot expect to hear of any attempts or design of theirs against this Kingdom But after Clement VIII who was elected Pope 3. Feb. 1591 2. was settled in his seat the like practises soon began again wherein those agents whom we have mentioned before Hesket Lopez and Complices his Cullen York and Williams who confessed some others and Squire were imployed to raise rebellion poison or assassinate the Queen Lopez by the King of Spain's Ministers of State not without the privity and consent of himself all the rest incited and encouraged by the Jesuites who for the like practises at the same time against the most Christian King though then become Catholick too Thu. l. 111. were exterminated out of all France and a Pyramid erected for their perpetual Infamy But from all these God still preserved her the Emissaries being discovered taken and Executed Nor did he only preserve her from their attempts but shortly after blessed her with happy successes in an Expedition against the Spaniards then preparing again to Invade England Bacon Observ wherein the King of Spains Navy of 50. tall Ships besides twenty Gallies to attend them were beaten and put to flight and in the end all but two which were taken by the English burned only the twenty Gallies by the benefit of the Shallows escaping the town of Cadiz manned with 4000. foot and 400. horse taken sack'd and burnt but great Clemency used toward the inhabitants Camd. an 1596 and at last the English returning home with honour and great spoils besides the two Gallions and about 100. great brass Guns and great store of ammunition and provisions of war taken in the town and with very small loss and but of one person of quality the Spaniards having lost in all first and last 13. of their best men of war and 44. other Ships of great burden and in Ships great guns and military provisions by the estimate of the most knowing persons above 3000000 ducates And when the King of Spain not long after that he might repair this loss in a heat had from all parts gathered together all the Ships he could and manned even the strangers Ships which were in the Ports of Spain and set out this Navy to Land upon the
Coasts either of England or Ireland the Heavens fought for her and so favoured her that by a horrid tempest which arose most of those Ships were either sunk by the waves or broken against the rocks in so much that she sooner heard of the destruction of her enemies than of their setting out to Sea to assault her The year ensuing great preparations were made on both sides but the Heavens not favoring any further proceedings of this kind both the Fleets were so dispersed by storms that neither came within sight of the other And now the King of Spain became well inclined to a peace with England which though proposed by the French he lived not to see brought to effect for he died the 13. of Sept. after 36. But the death of the King of Spain did not dissolve the Combination no more than the deaths of so many several Popes before had done For it still survived in his son Phil. 111. with Clement VIII Only so many former attempts having proved altogether unsuccessful against England there was now with the persons some change also of their Counsels and all their Consultations against England were afterward so directed as to depend for their execution upon the death of the Queen Yet in Ireland there seemed some hopes that something might be effected at present by assisting the Robels there and therefore for their encouragement and assistance the King of Spain by his Agent Don Martin de la Cerda sends them money and Ammunition and the Pope by Mathew de Oviedo whom he designed Archbishop of Dublin Promises of Indulgence with a Phaenix plume to Tir-Oen their General and the year after he sends them his Indulgence it self to this effect That whereas of long time being led on by the Exhortations of his Predecessors and himself and of the Apostolick See for the recovery and defence of their Liberty against the Hereticks they had with Vnited minds and Forces given aid and assistance first to James Fitz-Girald and lastly to Hugh Onel Earl of Tyron Captain General of the Catholick Army in Ireland who with their Souldiers had in process of time performed many brave atchievements fighting manfully against the enemy and for the future are ready to perform the like that they may all the more cheerfully do it and assist against the said Hereticks being willing after the example of his Predecessors to vouchsafe them some Spiritual Graces and Favours he favourably grants to all and every one who shall joyn with the said Hugh and his Army asserting and fighting for the Catholick Faith or any way aid or assist them if they be truly penitent and have confessed and if it may be received the Sacrament a Plenary Pardon and Remission of All their Sins the same which used to be granted by the Popes of Rome to those who go to war against the Turks 18. April 1600. Camd. p. 750. Foul. p. 651. And the next year again for their further encouragement he sends a particular letter to Tyrone wherein he Commends their Devotion in engaging in a Holy League and their valour and atcheivements Exhorts them to continue unanimous in the same mind and Promises to write effectually to his Sons the Catholick Kings and Princes to give all manner of Assistance to them and their cause and tells him he thinks to send them a peculiar Nuncio who may be helpful to them in all things as occasion shall serve 20. Jan. 1601. Foul. p. 655. The King of Spain likewise sends his Assistance a great fleet who landed at King-Sale 20. Sept. under the conduct of Don John d'Aquila who sets out a Declaration shewing the King of Spain's pretense in the war which he saith is with the Apostolick Authority to be administred by him that they perswade not any to deny due Obedience according to the word of God to their Prince but that all know that for many years since Elizabeth was deprived of her Kingdom and All her Subjects Absolved from their Fidelity by the Pope unto whom he that reigneth in the Heavens the King of Kings hath committed All Power that he should Root up Destroy Plant and Build in such sort that he may punish temporal Kings if it should be good for the Spiritual Building even to their Deposing which thing hath been done in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland by many Popes viz. by Pope Pius v. Gregory XIII and now by Clement VIII as is well known whose Bulls are extant that the Pope and the King of Spain have resolved to send Souldiers Silver Gold and Arms with a most liberal hand that the Pope Christs Vicar on Earth doth command them the Papists in Ireland to take Arms for the defense of their Faith c. Camd. p. 829. Foul. 658. And not long after more Supplies were sent from Spain under Alonso de Ocampo Thu. l. 125. Cam. an 1601. 1602. But it pleased God to make the Queen still Victorious over All and part of them with the Irish Rebels being beaten and routed in the Field the rest are brought to articles upon which they Surrender All and are sent home when more forces were coming from Spain to their recruit The next year most of the other Rebels being defeated and subdued last of all Mac Eggan the Popes Vicar Apostolick with a party of the Rebels which he himself led with his Sword drawn in one hand and his Breviary and Beads in the other was slain by the Queens forces and the Rebels routed in January 1602 3 and so the whole Kingdom Tyrone also submitting to mercy totally subdued Camd. an 1603. Foul. p. 664. 37. And now this Blessed Queen having by an Admirable Providence of Almighty God been Preserved from All these both Secret Conspiracies and Open Invasions through a long Reign of four and forty years compleat and made victorious over All her Enemies as well abroad as at home Out-lived her great and bitter enemy Phil. 11. King of Spain who himself lived to be sensible of the Divine Judgment of the Iniquity of his Actions against her and to desire a Peace with her though he lived not to enjoy it Out-lived four Kings of France eight Popes and the greatest part of the ninth and maugre all the Powers of Hell the Malice and Wicked Machinations of Men of most turbulent and Anti-christian Spirits Defended that Purity of Religion which even at the very beginning of Her Reign she had with Mature Deliberation and a Generous and most Christian Courage and Resolution notwithstanding all Difficulties and Dangers which on every side threatened her undertakings established was by the same at last brought to her Grave in Peace in a Good Old Age. Her very Enemies admiring as well her Worth and Excellence as her Glory and Felicity see the one extolled by Sixtus v. Thu. l. 82. p. 48. and the other by An. Atestina l. 129. and both more largly described by the Noble and Ingenuous Thuanus l. 129. and Sir Francis Bacon in his
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 disâ—favouring Crossing Blasting and Severely Punishing and Revenging the disferent 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 Fosse 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 by the Plague in the flower of his age Thuan. if his heart was not broken as was thought Raleigh by the disappointment of his ambitious designs after he had fouly by the Popes Dispensation falsified his Oath taken to observe the Treaty made with the States General And we might here likewise take notice not only of what some may think observable in the Death of the King of Spain Thu. l. 120. if not devoured yet in a great measure wasted and consumed by Lyce bred in his own body which in so great quantities issued out of four several tumours in his breast as that it was as much as two men by turns could do to wipe them off from him with napkins and cloathes but of that which others may think more remarkable in his Life which is that having twice most solemnly Sworn to the States General of the Low-Countries over which he held only a kind of Seigniory to Maintain their Ancient Rights Raleigh Priviledges and Customes which they had enjoyed under their thirty and five Earls before him and afterwards obtained from the Pope a Dispensation of his Oathes which Dispensation says Sir Walter Rawleigh was the true cause of the war and Blood-shed since when he sought contrary to his Oathes and all Right and Justice not only by new devised and intolerable Impositions to tread their National and Fundamental Laws Priviledges and Ancient Rights under his feet and both by Arts dividing their Nobility and by Force to enslave their Persons and Estates and make himself Absolute but moreover by introducing among them the Exercise of the Spanish Inquisition to Tyrannize also over their Consciences and in pursuance hereof had committed many barbarous Murders and Massacres among them by the Just Providence of God he was thrown out of all and those Rights and Priviledges which he sought to abolish and that Religion which he sought to oppress were by that people retained and enjoyed with greater freedom and liberty than ever so that in conclusion the recompense of that oppression and cruelty which he exercised upon them was the loss of those Countries which says Raleigh for beauty gave place to none and for revenue did equal his West-Indies besides the loss of an hundred millions of money and of the lives of above four hundred thousand Christians by him cast away in his endeavours to enslave them If besides this we reflect upon his many and various attempts against the Queen of England Thu. l. 120. some of them with so great study and vast expense of his Treasure his unhappy Wars in aid of the Rebels in France which his ambitious hopes had no less devoured than they had England all of them unsuccessful and remarkably blasted and himself at last so weary of them that he was glad to desire peace with both his fruitless wasting of 5594. Myriads of Gold as himself confessed without any other profit than the acquest of Portugal which he thought might be as easily lost as his hopes of the Kingdom of France had suddenly vanished and however was sufficiently ballanced with his loss in Africa and elsewhere the death of his eldest son by his own command as the lesuite * 9. Ration Temp. 12. Petavius saith expresly and the less of all his other sons save only Phil. 111. who succeeded him and was the only son of all his four wives who survived him If we seriously I say reflect upon all these we may look upon the prolongation of his life in respect of himself but as a continuance of trouble and misery to him and in respect of this blessed Queen to have been designed by God for an Exercise of her Faith and Virtue and a necessary means to render his Favour and never failing Providence over her the more Manifest Conspicuous and Exemplary to encourage others to Fidelity to him and Resignation to his most Wise Powerful and Gracious Providence But though these things do well deserve our notice yet that which I call a Distinguishing Providence is yet more admirable and remarkable in her nearer neighbours in France 39. When Queen Elizabeth began her Reign in England Henry 11. was King of France His Father Francis 1. who in the beginning of his Reign which was about the time of Luthers first appearing against Indulgences had unhappily entred into a league with the Pope Leo x. which in the judgment of many says Thuanus brought destruction upon his affairs and family though in many things unhappy throughout his whole Reign yet certainly was he in nothing more unhappy than in the guilt of so much innocent blood as
was shed in the barbarous and horrid murders and slaughters which were made upon the Protestants of Merindol and Cabriers condemned meerly for their Religion Thu. l. 6. by a most rigid and severe Sentence of the Parliament of Provence after which he never enjoyed himself says Raleigh nor indeed his life long after his approbation of that Execution wherein their towns and villages to the number of two and twenty were burned and themselves without distinction of age or sex most barbarously murthered But being touched with remorse of Conscience and repenting of it upon his death bed he charged his Son that the injuries done to that people should be enquired into and their murtherers who in the cruelty of their execution had exceeded the severity of the Sentence to be duly punished threatening him with Gods judgments Thu. l. 3. Davil p. 14. if he neglected it And among other Admonitions which he then gave him this was one to beware of the Ambition of the Guises whom he foresaw if admitted to the administration of the Kingdom would reduce both his Children and the People of France to great miseries But Henry 11. no sooner came to his Fathers throne but he presently began to practise the contrary to his directions Davila p. 15.19 displacing those that before had any part in the government and substituting in their room the same men whom his Father had discharged and Guise with the first and at length the three brothers of Guise got into their hands all the principal governments and chief dignities of the Kingdom together with the super-intendancy of all affairs both Martial and Civil the Consequence of which did afterwards make good the truth of his fathers prediction Nor did he much better perform his fathers charge in doing Justice upon the bloody offenders Thu. l. 6. for though he gave the cause a long hearing yet did not the issue of the judgment answer the great expectations which the so many horrid crimes whereof they were accused did raise in mens minds one only of the offenders for want of friends at Court being executed but the principal actors of that wickedness restored to their former dignity and places so that instead of that Justice which if duly executed upon the offenders might possibly have averted or mitigated the Divine vengeance which hath since prosecuted his fathers guilt in his posterity he not only by neglect thereof but also by his own continuance of the like cruelties and for the same cause of Religion appropriated his fathers guilt to himself and with the addition of his own transmitted the same to his posterity with the Divine Vengeance further provoked attending it He began his Persecutions of the Protestants in the first year of his reign and continued the same to the last days of his life with that resolution that no sollicitation of neighbour Princes his allies could mitigate his fury He used his uttermost endeavour says Davila p. 40. to extirpate the roots of those seeds in their first growth and therefore with Inexorable Severity resolved that All who were found convict of this imputation should suffer death without mercy And although Many of the Counsellors in Every Parliament either Favouring the same Opinions or Abhorring the Continual Effusion of blood made use of all their skill to preserve as many as they could from the Severity of his Execution notwithstanding the Kings Vigilance and Constancy was such chiefly by the Incitements of the Cardinal of Lorain one of the Guises that he had reduced things to such a point as would in the end though with the Effusion of much blood have expelled all the peccant humours he means the Protestants out of the bowels of the Kingdom if the accident which followed had not interrupted the course of his resolution That which he calls an accident was the violent and in respect of the course of nature untimely but in respect of Gods Providence most seasonable death of that cruel King in the height of his Resolutions of Inexorable Severity against the Protestants by the hands of that same man whom he had but few days before imployed to apprehend and imprison some of the chief Senators for no other cause but their Religion and their free delivering of their Sentence according to the Laws in Parliament concerning the cause of the Protestants and at the same that Queen Elizabeth was with Her Senators Consulting and Resolved to Establish that Religion which he persecuted which she happily by Gods Blessing effected and procured a Blessing upon her self and her Kingdom while he furiously fighting against God was in a Ludicrous fight running at Tilt by a Splinter of a broken lance which found entrance at his eye though his head and body were clad in armour cut off from further prosecuting his resolutions in the midst of his years and in the midst of his publick Solemnities of the Nuptials of his eldest daughter to the King of Spain which whom he had concluded to make a war against the Protestants and of his only Sister to the Duke of Savoy in the view of the Bastile where those Senators were kept in Prison and within two or three days if not less after one of the chief of them was declared heritick and delivered over to the Secular Power Leaving behind him a Curse upon his posterity and Misery and Confusion to his Kingdom principally caused and promoted by those very instruments whose Counsels and Instigations he had followed in his wicked and bloody practises 40. He left four sons all in a manner children the eldest Francis 11. who succeeded him under the age of sixteen who by reason of his youth Lib. 1. or rather as says Davila his natural incapacity requiring if not a direct Regent yet a prudent assiduous Governour till his natural weakness was overcome by maturity of years the Ancient Customs of the Kingdom called to that Charge the Princes of the Blood among which for nearness and reputation it belonged to the Prince of Conde and the King of Navarre But Katherine of Medicis the Kings mother and Francis Duke of Guise with Charles his brother Cardinal of Lorain uncles to Mary Queen of Scots whom the King in the life-time of his father had married severally aspiring to the Government to which neither had right by the Laws of the Kingdom and therefore despairing by their own power and interest to obtain and retain it alone they resolved to unite their several interests and powers and to share it among them and they quickly obtained she by her interest in the King her Son and they by the means of their Niece his Queen that to the Duke was committed the Care of the Militia Davil l. â— the Civil affairs to the Cardinal and to the Queen-mother the Superintendance of all the Princes of the blood and others of the prime Nobility being excluded not only from the Government but also by arts and affronts removed or repulsed from the
which the Pope was about to deprive Elizabeth for her heresie But when this by reason of his love to his Queen a woman of great worth and by whom he enjoyed a good estate though they promised him the continuance of this by the Popes Authority notwithstanding the divorce and to his children he had by her would not take with him they propose that the King of Spain for satisfaction for his Kingdom of Navarre which the Spaniard unjustly held from him should give him the Isle of Sardinia which though a pitiful thing they very much magnified and promised the assistance of Spains Treasures and Forces if he would desert the Lutherans whom by the means of his Queen he was brought to favour and take upon him the Patronage of the Catholicks in France By which abuse for it proved no other they prevailed upon him and so made up the Triumvirate of Navarre the Duke of Guise and Momorancy the Constable and layd the foundation of that Civil war which shortly after ensued and in the compass of about a year after put an end to his hopes and life also Thu. l. 33. when being wounded he became sensible of his abuse and declared that if he recovered he would embrace the Protestant Confession of Augsburg and live and die in it About the same time or not long after the Queen Regent and the Councel upon the complaint of the Protestants of that little liberty Thu. l. 28. which was permitted them by former Edicts being abridged by or under pretence of the Late Edict of Italy which they said was surreptitiously obtained by a fraud in numbering the Votes resolve upon another Assembly at S. Germans where was made that famous and much Celebrated Edict of January Thu. l. 29. whereby the Protestants are permitted to assemble at Sermons so it be out of any City and the Magistrates commanded not to molest but protect and defend them from all injury and the Protestants that they should hold no Synod or Consistories unless the Magistrate first called was present their Pastors should engage to observe the Edict to teach the people the pure word of God and nothing contrary to the Nicene Councel the Creed and the books of the Old and New Testament and that both sides should abstain from all reproachful words speeches and books against one another and 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 Elizabâ—th 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 be done to a good end without any offence to the Royal Majesty and all be restored to their places c. And these and the rest were ratified in Counsel by an Edict of Pacification under the Kings own hand and Seal verified in Parliament and Proclaimed by sound of Trumpet in March 1562 3. which had they been honestly and justly observed might by Gods blessing have been a means of much peace and happiness to that Kingdom but we find the contrary as to the Observance and therefore no wonder if the contrary also to so hopeful and happy consequence and issue of it For no sooner was this War concluded upon this Edict of Pacification ratified with all the formalities and solemnities used for the establishing and confirming of Laws in France but the Edict began presently to be violated the Protestants in divers places bâ—th disturbed in their Religious Assemblies which this and other Laws allowed them to hold and injured in their Civil Rights and in divers manners frequently and grievously oppressed and that not onely by concourses and assaults of the vulgar and Rabble who having no pretence of Authority were many times with like force repulsed by the others Thu. l. 35 36 37 39. but even by the Presidents of the Provinces and other Magistrates whose duty it was to have seen the Laws justly observed but did the quite contrary and that not only by connivance at the exorbitances of the vulgar but also by their own actual iniquity Thu. l. 37. and that no part or kind of injustice might be wanting both by force and violence and also by fraud by breach of faith by subornation of witnesses Thu. l. 39. by false calumniations By which means and such like arts together with the mediation of their potent friends at Court the passionate young King being before prejudiced by the Arts of the Guisian faction especially the Cardinal of Lorain and further incensed by the Legate of Spain the Pope and Savoy who notwithstanding the late Edict urged him to banish and otherwise punish the Protestants and revoke the Liberty granted by it to them they easily obtained that the Complaints of the Protestants which were dayly brought to the King were anteverted and either totally rejected or cluded and the persons employed to exhibit the same ordinarily so discountenanced and discouraged that they were forced to return without any effect if not imprisoned and for the greatest violences and enormities even murther it self by which as some write not so few as three thousand had perished since the Edict of pacification could obtain no remedy or redress And of all this many plain and notable examples and proofs might be produced out of our Noble Excellent Historian Lib. 35 36 37 39. were it not too long to do it We might instance in that notable practice of the Bishop of Pamiers which gave the first occasion of that very tumult which that smooth Italian Davila mentions and while he exaggerates the actions of the Protestants in it with no little partiality conceals the first and true occasion of it but perhaps being a Courtier he relates it and other such passages as they were then by the Artifices and means above mentioned represented at the Court Nor was the Royal Authority abus'd to concur in this Iniquity and Injustice only by connivence and permission of these things thus done by the Kings Ministers and Officers in fraud and violation of the Agreement of Peace and the Edict made in Confirmation of it but also to give further occasion and countenance to it by divers fraudulent and elusory Interpretations of the Edict By which means whiles it seems it was thought too gross plainly and directly to revoke it they did notwithstanding indirectly elude its effect and the benefit expected by it in such sort that had the Protestants been of those pernitious principles that their adversaries indeed were and endeavoured to represent them to be the most subtile and malitious enemies of that Kingdom could not have devised and promoted a more effectual means and method of its confusion and ruine And the truth is this was it which the principal Authors and Fomenters of those courses the Guises at home and the Spaniards abroad aimed at and by these means in conclusion to make themselves Master of it Which though at that time not so visible to every one yet was afterwards very apparent The Pope also because France stood too much upon their Liberties and Priviledges being a well wisher to their designs especially of Guise though not so much of Spain as not desiring so potent a Neighbour But
involve them all yet great question there was how it should be prevented To complain they by experience knew what effect of that might be expected to Arm though in so great occasion of necessity and extremity they easily foresaw many inconveniences attending that They only unhappily not foresaw the proper remedy by their great Master prescribed in such case to fly though it had been to the greater humanity of the uncivilized Indians whereby they might perhaps better have consulted their own safety and also have promoted his service in the propagation of his Truth and Gospel But to Arm besides the mischiefs of a Civil War they thought that could not be without many calumnies and slanders cast upon them by their adversaries as if they were the Authors of it and undertook it against the King to whom they did not so much as impute their former injuries and oppressions or present dangers but only to their adversaries who having at first by force gotten the King into their power abused his immaturity and authority to ruine and destroy them and although they should take up Arms only against them and meerly for the necessary defence of the lives and fortunes of themselves their wives and children and for the preservation of the Kingdom yet should they not escape that imputation and therefore they unanimously agreed rather being innocent after the example of their ancestors to bear what injuries should be done them than to offer any to those who were indeed nocent lest by an ill defence of a good cause they should desert that Equity or Justice which had hitherto stood on their part till by the discourse of Andelot a person of great authority among the Peers and besides of known probity and virtue they were perswaded that after so often breach of Faith by their adversaries there was no further trust to be given to them and for the calumnies and slanders which should be cast upon them the issue of their so necessary undertakings if it pleased God to bless them in so just a cause would sufficiently clear them Upon which they changed their resolutions and agreed to take up Arms for their own defence which accordingly they did to the no little joy of the Cardinal of Lorain that the business was brought to the necessity of a War which Cardinali Lotaringus rem ad belli necessitatem deductam gaudens says Thuanus and a little before speaking of him Turbas consiliis suis opportunas existimans after several ineffectual treaties for an accommodation shortly ensued And these were the true causes and occasions of the second Civil War which after many Noblemen and Gentlemen of both sides slain at the Battel of St. Denis and among them the Constable the last of the Triumvirate and a principal Author of the late oppressions at least by protecting the actors in them from Justice and some other acts of Hostility was about six moneths after it began by a fraudulent peace rather intermitted than concluded for about six moneths after it broke out again upon the like causes and occasions 44. In the mean time that we may note it by the way Philip King of Spain a principal promoter and inventer of those oppressions and troubles to his neighbours escaped not a remarkable judgment of God upon him for at this same time Thu. l. 43. his eldest and then only son Prince Charles designed to kill him or at least he thought so or however suspecting that he favoured the Protestants in the Low-Countreys or for some other reason pretended so and therefore caused him to be taken out of his bed in the night and committed to custody Whereupon the young Prince falling distracted and often attempting to kill himself he was at last by Philip his Fathers own command having first consulted with the Inquisition poysoned Few months after his Queen whom he had employed in those bloudy consultations at the enterview at Bayonne died great with child and not without suspition of poison by his own means being as was thought jealous and suspitious of her too much familiarity with his own son whom he had not long before thus murthered And in her who was the eldest daughter of Hen. 2. of France married at the time of his death as hath been said and in this late consultation in France prosecuting his cruelties and so by her own act contracting a participation of his guilt we may take notice of the divine vengeance pursuing his posterity Nor was this divine vengeance upon King Philip thus remarkable only in those his domestick troubles but also in the Civil Commotions both in the Low-Countreys which by his bloudy consultations with the Inquisition the just judgment of God giving him up to be infatuated by them and the Jesuites and the the cruelties of Alva the same instrument whom he had employed to raise those troubles in France and now made Governor of the Low-Countreys produced there when he thought all things so safe and secure as that he might be at leisure to assist in the troubles which he had raised in France and besides these which as they at present afflicted him so afterward produced his loss of a great part of those Countreys in those Commotions even in Spain it self Thu. l. 43. by the Moors in Granada which for two years during those wars which he had caused in France made him feel the smart at home of such commotions and troubles as he had procured to others abroad And by these means as on the one side his pernitious counsels were justly punished so on the other was he diverted from prosecuting the same by sending those Forces against the Protestants in France which otherwise he had undoubtedly done Thu. l. 58. And to these might be added his loss of Goletta in Africa an 1574. and with it the Kingdom of Tunis which concerned him in point of safety and security for navigation as well as of reputation but that some few years intervene 45. But to return to France the War after six months intermission upon the like causes and occasions breaking out again like diseases upon a relapse was both more violent and of longer continuance Yet the counsels of the Queen-mother prevailing who according to the genius and mode of her Country sought all along rather by her Italian arts and surprizes to compass her ends than by the hazard of a Civil War which Spain and the Guises most desired as best accommodate to their designs Thu. l. 47. it was within the compass of two years brought to conclusion upon such conditions granted to the Protestants as were so much more fair and reasonable by how much with greater fraud and deep design to ensnare them they were granted and yet so qualified and limited as not to give cause of suspition by too great indulgence And now the King was grown up to a capacity of deriving upon himself his Fathers guilt and the guilt of all those murthers and cruelties acted indeed
its being effected was received at Rome with triumphant joy by the new Pope and his Cardinals but how far his predecessors were concerned in the contrivance and promotion of it in regard of the great secrecy wherewith all was managed would be very difficult fully to discover as to all the particulars and circumstances yet that they had a great hand in it Thu. l. 36. Da. p. 189. is evident enough in many passages of the story For when after the first Civil War the King instructed by the Queen-Mother had dismissed the Ambassadors sent in the joynt names of the King of Spain the Pope and the Duke of Savoy with thanks to their Masters for their wholsom counsel and proffers of Forces and Aid to expel and extirpate Heresy out of his Dominions assuring them that he would live according to the rites of the Church of Rome and take care that all his people do the like and that he had concluded the peace to that end to expel his enemies out of his Kingdom and promising by Ministers of his own to acquaint the Pope and other Princes particularly with his resolutions they resolved under pretence of a Progress among other things Da p. 190. to come to a Parly with the Duke of Savoy in Dolphine with the Pope's Ministers at Avignon and with the King of Spain or the Queen his Wife upon the Confines of Guienna that so they might communicate their Counsels to them without the hazard of trusting French-men who either through dependence or kindred might be moved to reveal them to the Protestants And having sufficiently informed and fully satisfied Savoy with their intentions and way Da. p. 194. designed to free themselves without noise or danger from the trouble of the Protestants at Avignon they confer with Ludovico Antinori one of the Pope's trusty Ministers and a Florentine being according to the Queens desire come thither and give that Answer to the Pope's Embassy which they would not trust to the Ambassadors concerning their purpose to extirpate Calvinism by secret stratagems without the danger or tumult of new wars And here no doubt was some matters of no small moment transacted Thu. 36. for the King having gone by Arles and Aix as far as Marseilles returned again to Avignon immediately under the Pope's Jurisdiction But what-ever they were in particular so well it seems was the Pope pleased with the means and method resolved upon for the extirpation of Calvinism Da. p. 194. that in order thereunto he consented that the Publication of the Council of Trent in France should be deferred till such time as they had brought their designs to maturity And probably for the same purpose by the mediation of the King and Queen-Mother desisted from his Excommunication of the Queen of Navar which by his Monitory he had threatned against her And at his instance was the next year held that Consultation at Bayonne before mentioned Thu. l. 37. p. 74. at which he desired that the King of Spain himself should have been present to whom it is not to be doubted but he sent his advice concerning what was there to be resolved But this Pope dying soon after his successor Pius 5. being as yet unacquainted with the mystery of them began presently to be offended with the proceedings in France Da p. 210. till he was better informed of all those reasons which Ludovico Antenori had represented to his predecessor with which he remained fully content and satisfied says Davila The Queen also acquainted him with her Counsels Thu. l. 53. not only by Cardinal Sancta Crux four years before they were executed at Paris by him desiring the Pope's confirmation but also by letters under her own hand as Capilupus testifies who saith that he had seen the very letters themselves Nor was he only privy to these Counsels of the King and Queen-Mother but likewise communicated his counsel and advice in the same business to them He sent to the King of France and his Ministers most excellent instructions for the rooting out of those Hereticks out of that Kingdom says Cicarella Cicarel in vita Pii 5. but tells us not what they were yet that is not hard to guess at from the consideration of his nature and actions as hath been mentioned before as well disposed to promote cruel and bloudy designs as could be And when those Civil Wars which for the space of three years interrupted the course of those Italian policies and stratagems broke out he ordered them also the assistance of his Forces But when the War was concluded and the King with his Mother and Cabinet-Council had resolved to make a Marriage between the young Prince of Navar being now grown up and the King's Sister to be the train to draw the Protestant party into that snare which had been so long before devised the Pope not yet acquainted with this circumstance for though the thing which was to be done had been long resolved on yet the method and manner how to bring it about was often altered as accidents and occasions did intervene when he heard of the treaty of the Marriage but had not notice of the mystery of it and moreover heard of the preparations for a War against Spain he began to be suspitious that the King had forgotten his former kindness and excellent instructions and therefore ordered his Nephew Cardinal Alexandrino in his return from Spain to debate the business with him Whereupon the King assured him that he did all this to obey the instructions of P. Pius But P. Pius lived not to receive this satisfaction Catena in vita Pii 5. or not long after not to see that joyful day which his successor Greg. 13. did and kept with great joy and solemnity for the wished success of these Counsels For the promoting whereof being perswaded by the Cardinal of Lorain Da. p. 361 Answer to Philanax p. 100. and told that this Marriage was intended as a trap to destroy the Prince of Navar and his Protestant party he presently gave his dispensation for the celebrating of it and encouraged the design which was as much as he could do at present things being already ripe for execution Thu. l. 53. But having received an account of the Massacre by letters from his Legate at Paris he read his Letters in the Consistory of Cardinals where presently it was decreed that they should all go directly thence to St. Marks and there solemnly give thanks to Almighty God for so great a blessing conferred upon the Roman See and the Christian world In Minervae aede and that the Monday following a publick Thanksgiving should be celebrated in the Church of Minerva and that the Pope and Cardinals should be at it and thereupon a Jubilee should be published throughout all the whole Christian World and among other causes thereof expressed this was the first To give thanks to God for the destruction in France of
undone partly to consult the credit of their King and Countrey partly to accommodate the present state of affairs endeavoured either by feigned praises or officious excuses to cover and palliate that fact which in their hearts they detected And some were therein so far transported and over-shot themselves out of zeal for the honour and good of their Countrey that our ingenuous author deplores their actings in it especially as to that foul business of the Trial and Sentence above-mentioned But generally the French Courtiers who were more ingenuous than to prostitute their reputation by asserting that pitiful pretence of the conspiracy yet used all their art to represent the case as a sudden accidental thing and not so long before contrived as the Italians and Spaniards relate 48. It is very usual and even natural to men especially to the more considering minds when any thing rare and extraordinary doth occur not to rest satisfied with the bare contemplation of the thing but also to reflect back and enquire into the causes of it And therefore since Thuanus relates that the more prudent of those Lib. 53. who being no way addicted to the Protestant party with good and honest meaning sought how to excuse this execrable fact yet in their heart detesting the same did also seriously consider the causes of it their sense and judgment in that respect may likewise deserve our observation They saw apparently that so infamous and pernitious counsels could not proceed but from minds so strangely infatuated and blinded and did seem to argue a special judgment of God upon them And of that the causes to which it might be reasonably attributed were very obvious and easy to be discovered For such was the profaneness debauchery and wickedness which prevailing in the King through his evil Education by his Mother and those Tutors to whom she committed him and in the Court were by the evil example thereof derived to the City and thence to the Countrey-Towns and Villages and so diffused through the whole Kingdom as could not but provoke the Holy Majesty of God to send down his judgments upon them This is the sum of their judgment only he gives more particular instances in the sins of common Swearing Adultery and Fornication to which others add many more and tell us in general that then never was there any more vicious or more corrupted Court. And indeed those were such causes as being so obvious and notorious no serious Christian believing and instructed in the Sacred Scriptures but would readily assign in the case Rom. 1â— For thus doth St. Paul inform the Romans of such as hold the truth in unrighteousness and our Romanists might do well to be admonished by it that because when they knew God they glorified him not as God their foolish heart was darkened and he gave them up to the lusts of their own hearts to vile affections and to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient being filled with all Injustice Fornication Murder Deceit breach of Faith c. What-ever be the profession which such men make of Religion most certain it is that there is either great error and corruption in their Religion or little sincerity and life in their profession or lastly such impotence in the professors that the prevalence of their sensual affections doth easily over-power and fascinate their reason which argues their desertion by that Sacred Spirit which infuses light and life and heat and power into humane souls as they are disposed to receive it no less than doth the Sun communicate its kind influences to the corporal and animal nature And as this doth maturate and sweeten crude and sour fruits and confirm and strengthen the tender plants so doth that where it is indeed heartily embraced admirably dispose mens minds to sweetness and tranqâ—ility in themselves to sweetness and devotion to God to sweetness kindness and benignity to men and makes these dispositions strong and powerful in them Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is power it informs the mind and understanding it reforms the will and affections and transforms the whole man into its own likeness These are the fruits of the Spirit by which we are to judge of the tree This is that whereby all true Christians have a real and internal not meerly external or political communion and union with their Head Christ Jesus and through him with the fountain from whom by him it is derived to all his true members of his fulness we all receive and one with another they are all partakers of the same Spirit a nearer alliance than that of bloud and are filled with a tender affection to all the children of the same Father and love to all the creatures of their great Lord and for his sake even to their enemies to those that persecute and injure them pitying their blindness and madness and desiring their conversion not destruction But no sooner or further is any man deserted by this blessed Spirit or devoid of his sweet influences but he presently becomes so much the more obnoxious to all the malevolent aspects of wicked spirits and is impregnated and â—illed with the poison of their infections which excites and exalgitates to exorbitancy his sensual affections dementates his understanding and continually foments and promotes the assimulation and likeness of their own nature in him cherishing and fructifying the roots which are in him of Pride Ambition Envy Malice Revenge Perfidiousness and all manner of lusts and wickedness according to his particular disposition And because there is so strong and powerful a propensity to Religion rooted and fixed in the very nature of man as is very difficult if not impossible utterly to extirpate or depress this in such a person is by the subtil operation of these agents either if more languid and remiss diverted by exciting him to an eager prosecution of his other more strong inclinations or if more intense and active perverted either into superstition or some other conceived heroick acts of a partial Religion consisting and concurring with the satisfaction of his other inclinations whence ordinarily proceeds much of that heat and zeal which we frequently see in men for their several parties for the shells and out-sides of Religion for opinions and notions no more necessary to be known and determined to make men compleat Christians than the speculations of Philosophers and often for pernitious and destructive principles especially in the Romanists and inconsiderate endeavours by fraud and injustice sedition or oppression and violent persecutions and such like most unchristian actions for the advancement of the cause which they espouse whereby they encourage themselves with secret hopes to expiate their licentiousness and indulgence to their own inclinations in other matters and easily perswade themselves that so long as they are such good Catholicks or well affected to the truth and the cause of God and his Church that all must needs be well with them And hence
proceeded this not only unchristian but barbarous and inhumane perfidious bloudy action of Charles 9. Hence the suspition of his Brother and Successors Henr. 3. Hence all the licentiousness and wickedness which we see every where in the World And to all this is no small occasion given by the complying Conduct Commutations of Penances and other practices of the Jesuites and other Romanists But the same Apostle informs us of another cause near of kin to this and no less effectual to the provocation of this judgment of obduration of mens minds which is very likely to have had no little influence in this case and that is the resisting rejaction or not receiving and embracing of the Truth when offered which he mentions in a passage which if I be not much mistaken concerns the defection of the Church of Rome and hath been so understood by the Christians in all ages though somewhat obscurely and imperfectly as is usual in the interpretations of prophetick writings before they be fulfilled as well agrees with the conjecture Because they receive not the love of the Truth saith he For this cause God shall send them strong delusions 1 Thes 2. And this 't is very likely had no small influence in this case For if out of the Roman Religion we take all that which the Protestants receive and profess which the Romanists must needs confess to be truly Catholick the greatest part of the rest hath been either introduced or so new modelled and accommodated to the secular interest and advantage of the See of Rome within this 600 years last past as hath not only given occasion to most of the troubles and mischiefs in Europe ever since but very much injured dishonoured and prejudiced Christianity it self And when it pleased God by his providence both long since and again of latter days to raise up a people in the Confines of France who retaining that which of all sides is confessed to be truly Catholick rejected those novel corruptions and abuses though perhaps with them some things which might be tolerated and thereby gave so fair occasion to the French upon further consideration and with more mature deliberation to reform the same as Queen Eliz. did here that a great part of the most sober and pious of the French Nation even Bishops and Cardinals being thereupon sensible of the need of it did earnestly desire and sollicit the convention of a National Synod to that purpose the French Kings were unhappily so far wrought upon by the arts of Rome as not only ungratefully to reject that benefit offered by the Divine Providence but at last to persecute those who were made the occasions of it And this seems to have been so manifest a cause of the troubles mischiefs and adversities which by the providence of God have befallen that Nation and their Princes since the beginning of that Century that it is strange but that the height of contentions then on foot might perhaps hinder it that neither those prudent considering men did take notice of it in this case nor yet our judicious and can did Author who relates their judgment and had himself observed almost as much in Lewis 12. If it be fit says he for a mortal man to speak his opinion concerning the eternal Counsels of God ◠v. 1. I should say that there was no other cause why that most excellent Prince in so many respects commendable and worthy of a better fortune should meet with so many conflicts with adversities than that he had contracted so near alliance with Pope Alexander 6. and cherished the cruelties lusts perfidiousness and fortunes of that impure Father the Pope and of his Son Caesar Borgia a man drowned in all kind of wickedness and then relating the King's calling of a Synod upon his provocations by the next Pope Julius 2. undoubtedly so ordered for the same purpose by the Divine Providence first at Lions and then at Pisa for the reformation of the Church and his medals coined with this Inscription PERDAM BABYLONIS NOMEN and how after all this he renounced the Council at Pisa through the importunities of his wife and subscribed to the Lateran Council to gratifie the next Pope Leo 10. and adding that in the judgment of many he had done more advisedly if he had persevered in his purpose of reforming the Church he concludes These therefore were the causes both of the declination of our Empire and of the adverse fortune of Lewis who after all his other misfortunes died without issue male which he much desired to succeed him And in this King is very observable that as there was in him no want of magnanimity humane prudence or care for himself the glory of his Kingdom and prosperity of his affairs to which his misfortunes could be imputed which makes the judgment of God therein the more apparent so neither could any vice or other fault be noted in him which might be assigned as a cause of that judgment but what is here mentioned the neglect of that duty whereunto he was so fairly led and whereof he was so far convinced as that he began to put it in execution In the time of his successor Francis 1. all things seemed to conspire in giving occasion every where to the Reformation of the Church what through the Pope's differences with several Princes which produced the abolition and abrogation of the Papal Authority for some time in Spain and afterward in England what through that abominable imposture of Indulgences and other their gross wickedness and abuses which provoked Martin Luther and other learned men to search into and detect their mystery of iniquity and discover many gross errors and abuses crept into the Church whereupon ensued the Reformation happily begun and promoted by many Protestant Princes and Cities in Germany and other parts But Francis not only neglected the occasion and rejected and made himself unworthy of the common benefit of it but moreover contracted that * He married his Son Henr. 2. to Katharine of Medices daughter to Lawrence D. of Urbin who was Nephew to Leo 10. and Cousin to Clem. 7. alliance with the Popes and at last began those †V. 3. Sect. 39. pag. 56. persecutions the unhappy consequence of both which we are now relating Nor was the King of Spain much more happy in his persecutions of the Protestants in the Low-Countries the consequence whereof was the loss of the best part of them and all he got by the Inquisition in Spain was but the exclusion of light and truth from his people and his own slavery to the strong delusions and infatuations of the Jesuites who precipitated him into divers dishonourable unsuccesful and to his own affairs pernitious undertakings 49. But to return to the effects and consequences of that bloudy act whereof what hath yet been related was but the first fruits of those Counsels from which so much happiness tranquility and glory were so long expected instead whereof
raised against it besides Aumale Tular Cossens Goa his Brother and other 40000 Souldiers the very number said by Davila to have been slain in the massacre being slain and dead of sickness and among these 60 chief * Ordinum Ductores Commanders and as some say most of the actors of that tragedy besides a vast deal of mony and military provisions spent and at last things being reduced to those streights that the King contrary to what bad before been falsly perswaded him thought himself a greater gainer by that Peace than by the Parisian slaughter Such were the effects whether of the Italian Policy or the Roâ—ish Doctrine of not keeping Faith with Hereticks 50. He had no sooner ended this War Tâ—â— l. 57. but he began to be grievously afflicted with that fatal disease which in few months after put an end to his life not without suspition of poison by his Mother and Brother Anjou and besides in the mean time by her arts and the influences of the Guises upon her was presently involved in a fit of Civil War And this not only against the Protestants whom having sufficient cause from former experience to beware of the perfidiousness and cruelty of their enemies after other new occasions of suspition she forced again to provide for their security and stand upon their defence by a perfidious attempt to surprize Rochel by her emissaries who had corrupted some in the City to betray it to the Forces which for that purpose they had drawn near it but also against a considerable party of the Catholicks as they call them whom while she thought it necessary for the continuance of her power and authority in the government to keep up and foment factions among the chief Nobility she by over-doing what she designed forced for their own safety and security to joyn their complaints and forces with the Protestants Whereby considering the division of that party she in some sort repaired the loss which the Protestant party had sustained by the massacres the Providence of God undoubtedly thus ordering it to manifest the vanity of their former hopes of peace and tranquility by such wicked courses for the destruction of the Protestants and to punish by their mutual dissentions among themselves their former unanimity in persecuting them The chief of this party were the sons of the old 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 Pauâ—i naturalem ei rebantur memores quae summus dissimulandâ— artifex prae impatientia interminatus matri frotri â—sset 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 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 〈◊〉 which consisted most of such who had subscribed to 〈◊〉 the Catholick Lâ—ague 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 a wary answer such as though not altogether denying their demand yet gave them no great satisfaction But though they failed in this attempt to unking the King with his own consent yet they resolved though without or contrary to his consent not only to moderate the last articles of Peace but to break them utterly and again with more force than ever to begin the War against the Protestants whereby they brought the King to this necessity that he must either plainly and openly break his faith given to the Protestants which he had done before only by connivance or engage with them in a more dangerous War against the Leaguers And divers disswaded him from breach of his Faith among the rest William Lantgrave of Hesse Thu. l. 63. besides the reason he gave him in mind of that late and memorable example of Ladislaus 4. King of Hungary who having sworn a Truce with the great Turk Amurath 2. being perswaded by the Pope and Cardinals out of a vain hope that they could absolve him from the obligation of it perfidiously broke it Whereupon in the first encounter the Turk lifting up his eyes to Heaven and calling to Christ to behold and punish the perfidious dealing where with his followers had dishonoured him he was himself slain with 30000 of his men on the other side the French Theologists did openly both in Sermons and printed Books contend that the Prince is not obliged to keep Faith with the Hereticks alledging to that purpose the Decree of the Council of Constance and therefore War is to be undertaken to extirpate them And by the advice of the Bishop of Lymoges and Morvillier sometime Bishop of Orleans the King determined since he could not by open resistance hinder the designs and progress of the League which already had taken too deep root to make himself Head and Protector of it and draw that authority to himself which he saw they endeavoured to settle upon the Head of the League both within and without the Kingdom which accordingly he did causing it to be read published and sworn in open assembly and with high protestations declared that he would spend his last breath to reduce all his people to a unity in Religion and an entire obedience to the Roman Church which done he without much difficulty prevailed with Navar and the Protestants to yield to some restraints of the publick exercise of their Religion And thus by a new Edict of Pacification were things in * For in the midst of peace nothing but the persecution of heresie was daily threatened Da. p. 479. some sort quieted for some time 52. But after the death of Alancon the King's youngest Brother who died without issue and not without suspition of poison in the flower of his age being about thirty wherein we may take notice by the way of the Divine Vengeance by degrees extirpating that Family which so wickedly sought the extirpation of the Protestants the King having no issue nor like to have any Busbeq ep 5. notwithstanding all his visits and supplications at the Monuments of Saints and Religious places whereby the Crown was likely to descend to the King of Navar a Protestant Prince who was next heir to it the Leaguers presently begin new troubles Thu. l. 80. the Preachers from the Pulpits fill their hearers minds with fears and jealousies meetings are every where held Souldiers secretly listed and Officers appointed and the more to enrage the people Thu. l. 81. while the Preachers fill their ears with the noise of approaching dangers dreadful and horrid representations of most terrible persecutions which the Catholicks are said to suffer in England are presented to their view both in printed Books and also in Cuts and Pictures which are set up in publick places and persons appointed to relate the sad stories of them and tell the people that thus it will be also in France if the King of Navar be admitted to the Kingdom and therefore to secure themselves of a Catholick King they resolve to set up the Cardinal Bourbon for head of the League at present and to succeed the King in case he should die without issue And the better to strengthen themselves they renew their League with the Spaniard Da. p. 526. and having suddenly raised a considerable Army contrary to the King 's express prohibition by his Edict Da. p. 535. they begin to make themselves Masters of many Cities and Fortresses some by secret practices some by open force of Arms Da. p. 550. driving out the King's Governors and Officers and in short time through the fury
the prosecution whereof according to the Articles of the Peace two several Armies were appointed Guises atchievements were highly magnified by the Leaguers in France and no less by the Pope at Rome who sent to him and to the Cardinal Bourbon his Congratulatory Letters full of high praises which were presently published in print and dispersed abroad Wherein he commends their piety and zeal in promoting the business of Religion comparing Guise to the Holy Maccabees the defenders of the people of Israel so highly extolled in the Sacred Scriptures and exhorting him to continue succesfully and gloriously to fight for the advancement of the Church and the total extirpation of the Protestants acquaints him with his own uncessant prayers for the Divine assistance to him adding that nothing could be more seasonable for the present occasion than that he should have his Legate in France by whose means and authority their endeavours might be promoted for the good of the Kingdom and of the Catholick Religion And if any thing more be necessary to be done by him he desires to be certified of it who shall never be wanting to their cause Guise and the Leaguers being not a little animated by these things Thu. l. 93. the Assembly of the States at Blois which was called upon this late agreement and were most of the faction of the League especially the Order of the Clergy which did in a manner wholly incline to that side with great heat pronounce the King of Nivar for his crime of heresy unworthy of the succession of the Kingdom which being decreed by the Clergy and upon their signification and admonition universally subscribed by the other two orders holding it a great fault in the cause of Religion to dissent from the Ecclesiasticks the Arch-Bishop of Ambrun with twelve of each Order repair to the King and desire that by his authority and a publick Edict the Decree may be confirmed But the King utterly averse from it though he would not plainly deny it yet put it off as well as he could but such was the obstinacy of the States that he was forced at last to answer that he agreed to the general vote and would think of causing the Decree to be framed Guise also with all his might urged the receiving of the Council of Trent whereunto though the King consented yet was it rejected with great contradiction not only by the Nobility but by a great many of the Clergy This was urged by him partly as a powerful engine against the Protestants partly further to oblige the Pope if it succeeded and to raise a prejudice in him against the King if it succeeded not by his default And to ingratiate himself the more with the people he moves for ease of grievances by impositions and taxes though a thing inconsistent with the prosecution of the War against the hereticks But the King finding now a convenient opportunity to execute his design acquaints some of his confidents with it and having ordered all things so as to avoid the suspition of Guise much after the manner heretofore used against Colinius he commands him to be slain which was accordingly * The manner of his death see in the notes upon the history of the Massacre Sect. 17. done and the Cardinal his Brother being with many Lords and adherents of that Faction at the same time committed to custody was about two daies after by the King's command in like manner slain Thus do those who had wickedly conspired the barbarous slaughter of so many innocent Protestants now by the just judgment and vengeance of God upon them mutually conspire one anothers destruction And that City which was then so forward in executing the wicked counsels and commands of savage and perfidious men is now as forward in executing the just judgments of the righteous God upon one of the chief Authors of them and they who before had been the instruments of his cruelty are now made the instruments of his punishment 53. Thu. l. 93. Da. l. 10. Upon the news of these things spread abroad the Leaguers are all in an an uproar and at Paris having held a Council where nothing almost was heard but reproaches against the King and cries for revenge the Duke of Aumale is called out of a Monastery to be their Governor the Preachers from their Pulpits thunder out the praises of the Duke of Guise his Martyrdom and detestations of that slaughter most cruelly committed by the King in such manner that not only the minds of the baser people but also of the most noted Citizens were won by their perswasions and inflamed with an infinite desire to take revenge Thu. l. 94 Da. p. 762. Foul. c. 5. p. 530. and the Council of sixteen cause a writing to be presented to the famous Colledg of Divines called the Sorbon in the name of the Provost and Eschevins of the City containing these two Questions 1. Whether they should not be free from their Oath of Fidelity and Obedience to Henry the third And 2. Whether they might not with safe Conscience arm unite collect and contribute money for the defence and conservation of the Roman Catholick Religion in this Kingdom against the wicked counsels and endeavours of the King aforesaid and all other his adherents whomsoever and against his breach of publick Faith at Blois c. Whereunto upon mature deliberation at an assembly of seventy Masters of that Faculty and solemn resolution it was answered 〈◊〉 refragante 1. That the people of this Kingdom are free and at liberty from their Oath of Fidelity and Obedience to King Henry aforesaid 2. That the same people lawfully and with safe conscience * Dav. p. 763. that the King had forfeited his right to the Crown and that his Subjects not only might but ought to cast off their obedience c. may arm unite collect and contribute money for the defence and conservation of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion against the wicked counsels and endeavours of the aforesaid King and whomsoever adhering to him since he hath violated the publick Faith to the prejudice of the Catholick Religion and of the Edict of the holy Vnion and of the natural liberty of the assembly of the three Estates of this Kingdom Moreover they think fit that this Decree or conclusion be sent to the Pope that he may by the authority of the holy See approve and confirm it and afford his help and assistance Fonl. p. 533. And accordingly a Letter is drawn up and sent by the Parisians in the name of themselves and the rest of the Catholicks in France wherein they represent to him the zeal of the people all good men being ready to lay down their lives rather than suffer that Tyranny and more than 10000 of the Parisians filling the streets with cries to Heaven for vengeance against the Tyrant others whipping the statue of the Tyrant breaking it to pieces and throwing it into the fire Da.
p. 763. And indeed after this Declaration to use Davila's words the people as it were loosened from the bonds of obedience and having broken the rein of modesty ran violently to the breaking down of the King's Arms and Statues where ever they found them and began furiously to seek out all those whom they accounted dependants of his party by them called Navarrists and Politicks which forced many quiet men to leave their houses to save their lives which others were fain to compound for with money V. Thu. p. 397. and others unfortunately lost All Churches eccho'd with voices of the Preachers who aggravated the particide committed by * Hence Charles Steward here Henry Valois no longer called King of France but the Heretick Tyrant and persecuter of the holy Church and all places were full of Libels both in verse and prose which contained and amplified the same things several ways And the Council of sixteen having prepared the Preachers to be ready in case any tumult should arise to appease the people cause all the Counsellors of Parliament and Officers who adhered to the King to be imprisoned in the Bastille as enemies to the publick good This done they assemble a kind of Rump Parliament which substituting others in the place of those they had secluded make a publick Declaration for the deposing of the King and a new Decree and Engagement of holy Vnion for defence of the Catholick Religion the safety of Paris and other united Cities to oppose those who having violated the publick Faith had taken away the lives of the Catholick Princes to take just revenge for their marther and to defend the liberty and dignity of the States of France against all persons whoever without exception c. And this was proposed to be sworn to by all whereupon there was presently a general engagement throughout the whole Kingdom and for a Head of the Vnion they make choice of the D. of Mayenne Brother to the late D. of Guise who at the request of the Leaguers comes to Paris where a Council of the Vnion consisting of 40 of the chief Leaguers whose Orders all are to obey upon pain of death being instituted he is by the Parliament declared Lieutenant-General of the State and Crown of France and solemnly sworn to defend the Roman Catholick Apostolick Religion the Royal State 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
shoulders and having on instead of them Head-pieces and Coats of Male and after them the younger Monks in the same habit but armed with Muskets which they frequently and inconsiderately fired at those they met with a shot whereof one of Cardinal Cajetans domesticks was killed who being slain at so religious a shew was therefore held to be received into the blessed companies of the Confessors After this was made another Procession by the Duke of Nemours and Claud Brother to the Duke of Aumale who commanded the Infantry and the rest of the Officers of the Army who upon the great Altar of the principal Church renewed their League and Covenant and swore upon the Gospel to live and die for the cause of Religion and to defend the City against Navar. The Pope also that this Rebellion might want no authority which his infallibility could give it though there was no other scruple to his right and title but only his Religion fought against him with both swords by his Monitory against the Prelates c. who submitted to his obedience by his Legate Cardinals and other Emissaries sent to encourage the Rebels and by his forces and mony Thu. l. 102. whereof in about 10 months time he wasted 5000000 of aureos most upon the French War when there was more need of it to have relieved the poor who in the mean time died of famine at home and Clem. 8. Thu. l. 103. who not long after succeeded in that Chair said he was resolved in himself to spend all his treasures and bloud too if there was need to exclude Navar from his expected possession of the Kingdom Nor was their good son the Catholick King of Spain wanting to the promotion of so just a cause And in his own Army though many Thu. l. 97. otherwise of the Romish Religion submitted to him without any conditions or delay and others were satisfied with his word and promise which his former faithfulness had made of great authority even with his enemies v. Perefix p. 112. that he would refer all matters of Religion to a Lawful General or National Council and others with his Oath yet many having more regard to their own private interest and concerns than to their duty deserted him and either stood neuter to see which way the scales would turn or turned to the Leaguers Nevertheless not only of the Nobility Gentry and Laity but also of the Clergy Prelates Arch-Bishops Bishops and others many were more sensible of their duty than either to be drawn with such false though specious pretences or to be affrighted with the terrors of the Pope's pretended authority from it And therefore when the Pope's Mandates were read in the Parliament which sat at Tours Thu. l. 101. they made an Act of Parliament whereby the Monitorials made at Rome Mar. 1. were declared Nul Abusive Seditious to be damned full of impieties and importures contrary to the sacred Decrees Rights Immunities and liberties of the Gallican Church and it was decreed that the Copies of them sealed with the seal of Marsil Landiranus and signed by Sextil Lampinetus should be by the common Hangman publickly torne and burnt before the Palace Gates c. that Landiranus who pretending himself the Popes Legate brought those Mandates should be apprehended c. and Gregory calling himself Pope the 14th of that name was declared an enemy of the publick Peace of the Vnion of the Catholick Church and of the King and Kingdom a partaker of the Spanish Conspiracy a Favourer of Robels and guilty of the cruel detestable and inhumane parricide treacherously committed upon the most Christian and truly Catholick King Henr. 3. And this was required to be published by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops through their Diocesses The like was also done at Chaulâ—m and Caen. The next day after this was an Edict made in favour of the Pretestants with the general consent of all as necessary published whereby the Edict of July was revoked and the former Edicts in favour of the Protestants restored And very fair they were to have created a Patriarch of their own in France which the Senate urged but was opposed by the new Cordinal of Bourbon a man of no worth who was out of hope of being the man himself and was a promoter of a new faction of the Thirdlings among the King's party yet in those things which concerned the Collation of Benefices they gave that power to the Arch-Bishop which the Pope had usurped or pretended The King in a speech to a great Assembly of the Nobility and Officers of his Army upon the death of the former King had told them that of those things which Thu. l. 97. as they knew his Predecessor had at his death recommended to him this was the chief That he should maintain his Subjects of the Roman Catholick and of the Reformed Religion in equal liberty aequabili in libertate till by the authority of a lawful Occumenical or National Council something should be decreed concerning that difference which he would religiously observe and professed before them all that he had rather that day should be his last than to do any thing whereby be might be said to waver in his Faith or to have renounced that Religion which hitherto he had professed before he should be further instructed by a lawful Council to whose authority he did submit himself and therefore he gave free leave to those who were not satisfied with this to depart adding and when they have forsaken me yet God will never forsake me who I call your selves to witness from my childhood hath as it were led me by the hand and heaped upon me great and unconceivable benefits Nor did the beneficence of God toward David appear greater or more miraculous than when beyond the expectation of all through so many difficulties and dangers he brought me to the Throne so that I ought not in the least to doubt but he who breaking through so many obstacles hath called me to the Kingdom will preserve me in it and defend me against all the assaults of my enemies c. I value not the Kingdom of France no nor the Empire of the whole World so much that for the obtaining of them I would make any defection from that Religion which as true I have from my tender years imbibed with my Mothers milk and embrace any other faith than what as I have said before should be resolved in a lawful Council The like confidence in God Da. p. 900. Perefix p. 147. Thu. l. 98. with resignation to his will he afterwards expressed in a pious Prayer in the head of his Army before the Battel of Yvry after which he obtained a very notable Victory over a much greater Army Yet notwithstanding after all this whether through the importunity of the Roman Catholicks of his own party or the violence of his enemies who were assembled to elect a Catholick King Thu. l. 106 107. which was
Common Law and renounced all priviledges contrary to it But the Parliament thought fit rather to remit the whole business to a General Council or to a Convention of the Gallicane Church And at a great meeting of the Bishops at the Conference at Poisy they were admitted to teach but under many conditions to change their name be subject to the Bishop of the Diocess to do nothing to the prejudice of the Bishops Colledges Curates Universities or other Orders or their Jurisdiction and Function but be governed according to the prescript of the Common Law and renounce all contrary priviledges c. Hereupon was opened Clermont School at Paris But when this liberty was interrupted by the whole University of Paris the business was again brought before the Parliament The University having before advised with Carolus Molinaeus his Consultation or opinion and resolution of the Case which was afterwards published was that the University had good cause to declare against them for a Nusance because they had erected a new Colledge contrary to the ancient decrees of Synods the General Council under Innocent 3. the Decrees of the Court c. their Institution was not only to the detriment of the several Orders but to the danger of the whole Kingdom and every wise man might justly fear that they might prove spies and betray the secrets of the Kingdom they seemed to be instituted to lie in wait for the estates of dying people they set up a new School in a University to which they would not obey which was not only monstrous but a kind of sedition c. And it was argued on both sides in full Parliament by Pet. Versorius for the Society highly commending their Original and Institution and by Steph. Pascasius for the University as much condemning both their Institution and their Practice their Institution in respect of their obligation by vow both to their General who is always chosen by the King of Spain and whom they profess to respect as God present upon earth and promise a blind Obedience as they call it to him absolutely in all things and to the Pope to whom because they are so obsequious they ought so much the more to be suspected by the French who indeed acknowledge the Pope as Head and Prince of the Church but so as that he is bound to obey the 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 Bacchanaâ—s 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 heroick 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. â—ul 1594. who among many other things urged That by the Popes were many things inconsiderately and blindly granted them by Paul 3. Power to make new Statutes and to change those which their Founder had established also to absolve hereticks which if the Pope contend is more than the whole Gallican Church can do By Paul 4. To absolve penitents from all kind of crimes even those which are not comprehended in Bulla Caenae Dominicae and from those also which the holy See hath reserved to it self and pro tempore to commute vows and pilgrimages c. by Jul. 3. to give indulgence from fasts and prohibited meats Lastly by Greg. 13. to converse with sectaries and for that purpose to wear secular habits viz. for a disguise a thing prohibited by the S. Canons and to correct all kind of Books and so to mend the writings of the Fathers wherein what Plagiaries they have been is known to them who converse with Books that from thence have great confusions been brought into the Church and the Discipline generally been dissolved for by the Breve of Paul 3. the people are allowed to leave their own Pastors and run after them and to receive the Sacraments from them to whom Greg. hath committed authority to animadvert as well upon the Clergy as the people that all may be done rightly and after the Roman mode so that from Priests whether regular or secular it is uncertain they are suddenly become universal Pastors of the people or rather wandering vagabond Bishops Periodentas circumcelliones hamaxarios Episcopos that there is nothing which they cannot now do at Rome where they are called the Popes eyes mentis Pontificiae oculi that their Principles are inconsistent with the French that it is certain that to them is principally given in charge that they should oppress the Gallican liberty at first by guile and afterwards with open force even as in these last wars they have endeavoured to do that with them they are reckoned anathema who take the Kings part but that the French think the contrary and that not to obey the King is as to resist God and to sight against Heaven that they think that the Pope may excommunicate Kings and People when he pleaseth but the French on the contrary hold them for Sectaries who think that the Pope may interpose his authority in any difference of State that they attribute to the Pope an infinite power over all Kingdoms and set him above the Church above Councils and in fine make his power equal to his will to do what he please but the French hold his power to be finite or limited And for their good deeds and practices that Claud Matthew a ring-leader of the faction whom Henr. 3. had familiarly used in his private devotions and who therefore was well acquainted with his piety and devotion to the Rom. Cath. Religion with great impiety and ingratitude went to Rome and would have perswaded Greg. 13. to have excommunicated him unless he would comply with the leaders of that pernitious faction which being denied by him was after his death obtained of his successor Sixtus that Varada of the same society confirmed Barriere in his purpose to kill the King when he made some scruple at it that they confess as much but with frivolous cavillation seek to excuse it Nor are these the faults of single persons among them forasmuch as it is a usual thing or constant custom with them when they have any enterprize in hand to confer together about it c. that by their occult art of prying into secrets they have by little and little insinuated themselves into the minds of the simple and acquired a dominion in their consciences Whereof there is a fresh example in the five Popish Cantons of the Switzers whom when the Jesuites had in vain attempted to draw them from their League with the other Cantons of the Protestants made for their common safety they leaving the men like the serpent which deceived our first Parents set upon the women and perswaded them not to lye with their Husbands till they had broken off the League But the Switzers discovering the fraud shewed themselves men and handled the Conspirators according to their desert The Venetians likewise whose Justice and Prudence the duration of their State doth easily evince saw as much Yet they since did it an 3607. v. l. 137. and being warned by our example they did not indeed thrust them out of their Territories for how could they do that being so near neighbours to the Pope but did maturely shut them up within their own inclosures and interdicted them the hearing of confessions And how powerful they are among us by these means they openly profess and glory in it in their letters to their General But thus is the discipline of the Church overthrown and contrary to the prudent prohibition of the Council of Nants the saying of St. Aug. Neminem digne poenitere posse quem non sustineat unitas Ecclesiae the judgment of the ancient Christians who condemned Audius for making separation in the Church the people seduced from their own Pastors are adulterously allured to communion in sacris with them apart from others and at last stirred up to rebellion against their Prince and emissaries suborned to murder him Their conspiracies are well known against Prince Maurice which at last took effect and in England those of Parry Cullen York Wikiams in
Scotland those of James Gordon and Edmond Hay and with us that so often mentioned of Barriere But among the ancient Christians these monsters were unheard of Of the Christians was no Cassius no Niger no Albinus as Tertullian speaks Nor was that crime ever heard of in France till the coming in of the Jesuites For it was brought in by them from Spain whence they had their original where the Gothes as an ancient Author informs us took up this detestable custom that if any of their Kings pleased them not they put him to the sword and set up whom they pleased in his place On behalf of the Jesuites Cl. Dureus rather pleaded in bar of the action than spoke to the merits of the cause but P. Barnius answered more copiously in writing But as much of what was spoken by the others is here purposely omitted for brevity sake so those things particularly which I find answered by him except that of Portugal which notwithstanding his answer seems very probable as well agreeing with their principles and actions though such mysterious practices are not easy to be fully proved And thus stood the case with the Jesuites in France when the King was about to * Which was done 17. Jan. proclaim war against their great Patron the King of Spain and whether the particular consideration of these or either of these to prevent what they feared might be the consequence of them †V. Perefix 229. did produce that attempt of their Scholar Chastel or not for he was more deeply seasoned with their principles and instructions than to make a full confession yet certain it is that that attempt did produce a more speedy determination of the cause than could otherwise have been expected by a Decree 29 Dec. 1594. Thu. l. 111. whereby the Court did ordain that the Priests and Students of the Colledge of Clermont for they would not call them by the name of Jesuites and all others of that Society as corrupters of Youth perturbers of the publick Tranquillity and enemies of the King and Kingdom shall within three days after denunciation depart from Paris and all other Cities where they have opened School and within fifteen days after out of the Kingdom upon pain to be prosecuted as guilty of Treason and that their Goods and Lands shall be imployed for pious uses 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. 12â— 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 〈◊〉 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. 1â—â— for when the Parliament interceded against their restitution and were very averse from publishing the Kings Eidict for that purpose at lâ—st comes 〈◊〉 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
it behoves that they who maintain them should before all things renounce the same in their Schools If they do not they ought by no means to be suffered as those who maintain a Doctrine devised to the subversion of the fundamentals of royal power and authority If they do yet are they not much more to be trusted for at Rome and in Spain where these new monstrous opinions flourish they think one thing but speak * See their Answers to the Questions proposed to them by the Court after the murder of the King in Foul. l. 9. c. 2. five and the Answer to Philanax Angl. ch 5. p. 128. another in France and as they pass into this or that Country so do they take up or lay down these opinions If they say that this they may lawfully do by †V. Sporswood Hist of Scotl. l. 6. an 1580. pag 308 309. secret Dispensation then what certainty can be had of their Doctrine which is thus changed with their change of place and is good or bad according to the times This Doctrine they embrace and maintain in common all of them and it so thrives by little and little that it is to be feared lest in tract of time it infect the other orders which are not yet levened by it At first they had none more their adversaries than the Sarbonists now many of them are their favourers viz. those who received their first institution in their Schools Others who are now training up in learning under them will hereafter do the like and one day hold the chief dignities in the Senate and if they shall think the same in point of Doctrine also they will by degrees withdraw themselves from their duty of obedience to the King set at naught the King's Laws and suffer the Liberties of the Gallicane Church to become obsolete and wear out and lastly will reckon it no crime of Treason which is committed by an Ecclesiastick Then he goes on and imminds him of the fruits which had already been produced from these principles of Barriere Varada and Guignard and Chastel and of the last King's murder Gens ingrata against whom this ungrateful Society stirred up the people to sedition nor were they thought guiltless of that murder that in the late wars of other Orders many persisted constantly in the King's obedience but these conjoyntly and unanimously conspired against him with the inveterate enemies of the Kingdom the Spaniard nor was there one of that Society found who was of the King's party touches upon foreign examples how in Portugal they and they only deserting the cause of their Country adhered to the Spaniards and were the cause of the slaughters of so many Priests and devout Persons two thousand perishing under the Spaniards in several manners and by a singular indulgence obtained the Pope's pardon of so many confessed slaughters then having spoken of the reasonableness of the Decree which exterminates the Jesuites and had been received without contradiction in all other Courts had not they withstood it who were not well seâ—lâ—d in the King's obedience and were hardly brought off from their inveterate hatred against him and answered objections he presents the humble obsecrations and obtestations of the Parliament for the continuance of it and to these adds the humble supplication of the University and at last imminds him of the regard which his Predecessors had always had to the intercessions of the Supreme Courts at whose Petition or Advice they revoked or altered their Edicts if they contained any thing amiss that this the Courts of the Kingdom beseech his Majesty and promise themselves from his Grace that he will please to suffer them to enjoy their authority entire which indeed is the authority of the King himself as that which depends upon him c. But all would not do notwithstanding the intercession of the Parliament the deprecation of the University the disswasions of those he held both able and faithful to him he had made an Edict and it must be published and the Jesuites restored mal-gremesme les avis de quelques uns de son Conscil And they must not only be restored but moreover have a new Colledge built them at La Flesche which the King endowed with an annual Rent of 11000 Crowns Aurei and prevailed with the Clergy for 100000 more toward the building of it and he also orders that the hearts of Himself his Queen and their Successors shall be there intombed in a Church to be built by himself and in the mean time a Father of that Society is admitted to the inspection and conduct of his own being made his ordinary Preacher and Confessor viz. Father Cotton who presently thereupon began to shew his zeal for the Pope against a Sentence of the Colledge of Divines passed two years before wherein they had asserted the Liberties of the Gallican Church against the Pride and Havghtiness and Avarice of Rome and among other things that other Bishops have power to order the publick affairs of the Church within their own Diocess as well as the Roman Bishop in his V. l. 129. and at his instance by the command of the King L. 144. for the Court could not be brought to consent to it not only the marble Table whereon the Decree was engraved but the Pyramid it self with all the other inscriptions in detestation of that fact of Chastel was taken down and demolished and the printâ—d Cuts of it prohibited which being notwithstanding greedily bought up diligent search was by the King's command made for the brass Plate from which they were printed which yet was not found till few days before the murder of this King also renewed the common hatred against the Jesuits 59. But before we proceed to the murder it self of this King it will be necessary to take notice of some other Conspiracies against him whereof some were contemporary with those of Barriere and Chastel though not discovered till afterward and some were since The first of Nic. Malavicinus the Pope's Legate resident with the Arch-Duke at Bruxels who having every where sought for an assassine Thu. l. 123. at last light upon Ch. Ridicone a Dominican Friar of Gant who was very ready to lay down his life for the cause of Religion but before he would undertake this business desired in the first place to have the authority of the Pope and Cardinal's approbation wherefore the Legate for his satisfaction gave him a writing under his hand in the name of the Pope and Cardinals to that purpose and having furnished him with Mony and blessed him with the sign of the Cross he dismissed him giving him also for his better security from discovery a faculty or dispensation to wear a secular habit of a Souldier and to ride dance fence c. Being thus prepared for the business the Jesuite Hoduma to whom his Mother at confession had discovered the agreement desired to see him and having viewed him disliked nothing
which had been so often and so long disappointed All which having managed with wonderful art and dissimulation he at last obtained what he desired as in the following History is more particularly related THE HISTORY OF THE MASSACRES OF THE Protestants at PARIS and many other places in FRANCE in the Year of our Lord 1572. 1. THE day of the Nuptials between Henr. Lib. 5. King of Navar and Margaret Sister to the King of France drawing on which was appointed the * August 18th 15th of the Kalends of September the King by Letters solicits Coligni that he should come to Paris having before given in charge to Claudius Marcellus Provost of the Merchants that he should see to it that no disturbance did arise upon Colignie's coming to Paris Likewise Proclamation was published the third of the Nones of July July 5th when he was at Castrum-Bononiae about two miles from the City wherein it was for bidden that any of what condition soever should dare to renew the memory of things past give occasion of new quarrels carry pistols fight duels draw their swords especially in the King's retinue at Paris and in the Suburbs upon pain of death But if any difference should arise among the Nobles concerning their Honour or Reputation they should be bound to bring their plaint to the Duke of Anjou the King's Deputy throughout the whole Kingdom and to pray justice of him if they were of the Commons they should betake themselves to the High Chancellor deâ—l Hospital if it shall happen among those that shall not be in the Court but in Paris they shall go before the ordinary Magistrate It was also provided by the same Proclamation that those who were not of the Courts of any of the Princes or Nobles or of the Retinue of others or were not detained upon some necessary business but were of uncertain abode and habitation about Paris or the Suburbs should depart from the Court City within 24 hours after the publication of this Edict upon the same pain of death This was published for three days together with the sound of Trumpet in the Court and through the City and it was ordered that the publication should be repeated week by week upon the Sabbath-day Also there was adjoyned to the guards of the King's body for his greater security a guard of 400 choice Souldiers all which Coligni full of confidence and good assurance so interpreted as if the King desirous of the publick Peace did only prepare a contrary strength against those which were seditious and movers of troubles Therefore he comes into the City though many were greatly disturbed at it to whom when they importunately dehorted him both by letter and word of mouth he after he had given them thanks answered in one word That he was resolved now that Peace was concluded and things past forgotten to rely upon the saith of the King and that he had rather be dragged through the streets of Paris than to take up Civil Arms again 2. Among other letters there was one brought to him being now come to Paris written very smartly after this manner Remember that it is an established Decree of the Papists upon the account of Religion and confirmed by the authority of Councils that Faith is not to be kept with hereticks in the number of which Protestants are accounted Remember also that Protestants upon the account of the former Wars do lie under an eternal odium so that it is not to be doubted but this is the Queens resolution that Protestants be rooted out by any means whatsoever Add to this that it cannot be but that a woman that is a stranger and an Italian descended of the race of the Popes whom they oppose and of a Florentine and guileful nature should study all extremities against her enemies Consider moreover in what School the King was educated in which he drew in with his milk under his good Tutors this Doctrine that he should make it a sport to swear and forswear to use the name of God profanely to defile himself with Whoredomes and Adulteries to dissemble his Faith Religion Counsels to set his countenance according to occasion And that he might be accustomed to the effusion of the bloud of his Subjects he was taught from his childhood to behold the slaughters and butcheries of * And of men also v. l. 24. p. 275. beasts that he is setled in this perswasion to suffer no Religion in his Kingdom but that which may uphold his state according to the opinion of his Master Machiavel otherwise it would never be at Peace so long as two Religions flourished in it and that it was instilled into his ears that the Protestants did decree to spoil him of his Life and Empire And therefore he would never suffer the Protestants who had once whether upon a just or unjust cause taken up Arms against him to enjoy the benefit of his Edict but that he would with Arms revenge what was done with Arms against him nor would he look upon himself obliged to keep his Covenants which he had entred into with his armed Subjects These are the Arts of Princes the Elements of Policy the Arcana Imperii So Commodus of old commanded Julian whom he owned and embraced as his Father to be slain Thus Antonius Caracalla under pretence of mustering slew the prime youth of the City So Lysander cut the throats of eight hundred Milesians called together under pretence of friendship and society So Sergius Galba raged upon six thousand Spaniards and lately by the command of Antonius Spinola the chief men of the Isle of Corfica were called together to a Feast and slain In our memory did Christiern a King of a barbarous nature use the same arts in the Massacre of Stockholm So heretofore Charles 7 though reconciled to the Duke of Burgundy yet abstained not from killing him though he begged for his life Nor are the discourses that the King lately had with his mother at Blois unknown For when in a jocular manner profanely using as his custom is the name of God he asked her whether he had not acted his part handsomely at the coming of the Queen of Navar the Queen answered that he had begun well but these beginnings would little advantage him unless he proceeded But I said he with often repeated oaths will bring them all into your toils From these words the truth whereof you may be assured of you ought to take counsel and if you are wise get out of the City and so from the Court as from a most filthy sink with all the speed as may be 3. Coligni having read this letter though he was not a little troubled at it yet that he might not seem altogether to neglect the admonitions and intreaties of his friends made answer That there was no place left for these suspitions that he could never perswade himself that so great persidiousness could enter into so good a King than whom France
others There are two factions in the Kingdom one of the Momorancies to whom the Colignies were formerly added but now upon the account of Religion by which they have engaged many to them they constitute a new faction The other is of the Guises nor will France ever be quiet or that Majesty that is taken from Kings by the Civil Wars thence arising ever be restored till the chief of their Heads who disturb the most flourishing Empire and the publick Peace be stricken off They by the troubles of the Kingdom have grown to so great Power that they cannot be taken away at the same time they are severally to be taken off and set one against the other that they may destroy one another Coligni must be begun with who only survives of his Family who being taken out of the way it would much weaken the Momorancies who lie under so great an odium upon the account of their joyning with Coligni But this is an unworthy thing and not to be suffered by you said they directing their discourse to the King that a man whom only Nobility commends one that is advanced to honour by the favour of Kings now grown burdensom to the Nobility equal to Princes in honour grievous to your self should come to that height of madness and boldness that he should count it a sport to mock at Royal Majesty and every day at his own lust to raise Wars in the Kingdom Certainly his madness is above all things by you if you be indeed King to be restrained that by his example all may learn to bear their fortunes decently and use them modestly Nor only shall the faction of the Momorances be broken by his death but the power of the Protestants shall be over-turned of which when he is the very heart and soul in him alone the Protestants seem to live and he being dead they will fall with him This is not only useful but necessary for setling the publick Peace when as experience doth shew that as one house cannot keep two Dogs nor one tree relieve two Parrots so one and the same Kingdom cannot bear two Religions This may be done without danger or blame if some cut-throat as there are enough of them to be had be suborned to take away the life of Coligni encouraged by some present reward and hopes of future who having done the thing may make his escape by the help of a light horse prepared for that purpose V. Dav. p 368 370 The opinion of Alberto Condi Coun. of Retz For then without doubt the Protestants who are very numerous in the City supposing it to be done by the Guises will presently as you know they are a furious sort of people take up Arms and setting upon the Guisians they shall easily be cut off by their greater numbers for the people of Paris are much addicted to them and perhaps the Momorances so hateful to the Parisians shall be involved in the same tumult But if the thing proceed not so far yet at least the blame of the fact from which you shall receive great advantage shall be translated from you upon the Guisians as bearing yet in memory the murder of their Father whom having destroyed their Rivals you shall soon reduce into good order This thing being done you shall forthwith be able to determine concerning the chief leaders of the Protestants whom you have in your power who no doubt will return to their old Religion and due allegiance to you when evil Counsellors shall be removed And when it was debated in the Queens Council among those that were to be trusted their discourse went further that not only the Momorances with Coligni should be taken off but that the Guisians should at some fit opportunity be slain as those whom the Queen ought in no wise to trust or spare being heretofore grievously and often offended by her For so the Counsellors ordered the matter if the Protestants should go about to revenge the death of Coligni they and the Momorances should in the conflict be oppressed by the people as being inferior in strength but not without great loss to the adversaries whom the King having drawn a great number of Souldiers which he had then at his command into the Louvre sitting as a spectator might at last set upon being broken and weakened by fighting and as though they had taken Arms without his command and by way of sedition might command them all to be slain together with the Nobles as taking this or that party for whiles they remained safe there would be no end of murmurs and complaints against the Queen whom the seditious cry out upon as a stranger and so fit to be removed from the Government of the Kingdom 10. These were their divers counsels according to the diversity of the persons but they all agreed in the executing of the matter The Duke of Guise being at last taken into the privity of the fact though otherwise he knew nothing of the other Counsels an Assasine was sought for and presently Morevell appears being as it seemed provided for that purpose who having formerly undertaken to do such a villany he fled into the Camp of the Protestants but being affrighted by the danger of it lest he should seem to have done nothing he treacherously slew Arthurus Valdraeus Moius Monsieur de Muy at the siege of Niort Dav. p. 376. and from that time often changing his lodgings he concealed himself in the house of the Guises in which Family he was brought up from a child An house was also pitched upon in the Cloyster of St. German Auxerrois as they call it the house of Peter Pila Villemur who had formerly been Tutor to the Duke of Guise himself by which Coligni returning home must needs pass Therefore upon the Friday Coligni having dispatched much business in the King's Council where Anjou was present and composed a difference between Antonius Marafinus Guerchius and Tiangius chief of the Nobility of the Burgundians forward men he attended upon the King to the next Tennis-Court from whence after a promise from the King the Duke of Guise and Teligny betaking himself homeward walking on foot by the house of Villemur going gently along and reading a Petition which was then by chance presented to him Morevel discharging a Musquet from a window that had a linen Curtain drawn before it he was shot with a brace of bullets whereof one struck off the fore-finger of his right-hand and the other wounded him more dangerously in his left-arm while Guerchius was upon his right-hand and Rochus Sorbaeus Prunaeus upon his left who as likewise all that were there were exceedingly astonished at what was done But he with a countenance not disturbed only shewed them the house whence the bullets came and presently commands Armanus Claromontius Pilius and Franciscus Movinius that they should go the King and in his name acquaint him with what was done then binding up his arm and leaning upon his
domesticks he came on foot to his lodging which was not far off and when he was advised by one of his company that he should see to it whether the bullets wherewith he was wounded were not poisoned he answered that nothing should befall him but what was ordered by God Forthwith they force the house whence the shot proceeded and breaking open the dores found the Musquet in a lower room A young maid and a page that were found there were taken and bound for Morevel at a back-dore getting upon his horse was already fled to St. Antony's Gate where changing his horse and mounting another that was ready for that purpose he made his escape 11. The King receiving the news as if he had been astonished at an unexpected accident Shall I never saith he be at quiet and must new troubles alwaies arise from day to day and then throwing his rocket upon the ground he withdrew into the inner Castle Guise leaving the Tennis-Court departed another way Here all were full of wonder and many were disturbed being troubled in their minds to think what those things would come to Many even of those who bare no great good will to Coligny detested the fact But Navar and Conde presently repair to him and when as in their presence he was handled by the Chirurgions he was heard amidst all his pain to say only this Is this the goodly reconciliation that the King did undertake for then turning to Moore Chaplain to the late Queen of Navar he pronounced these words Ah my Brother now I know I am beloved of God for that I have received these wounds for his most holy Names sake God grant I may never forget his accustomed mercies towards me But when Ambrosius Paraeus the King's Chirurgeon told him that the Gangreen growing on his finger must be cut off and did attempt to do it with an instrument that had no good edge though he was forced to open and shut the shears three times yet he gave no sign of sense of his most sharp pain when he came to his left arm Merlin Conde's Chaplain came in who when he began to comfort him out of the holy Scriptures he brake out into these words My God forsake me not in these troubles nor cease from thy accustomed mercies towards me Then he whispered in the ear to one who held up his arm that he should deliver to Merlin an hundred Aurei to be distributed to the poor of the Church of Paris this I have often heard Paraeus speak 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 heaâ—â— 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 very dangerous to your Kingdom Is it not a most unworthy thing that an egg cannot be moved in your Privy Council but presently almost before it be turned a messenger runneth and reporteth it to the Duke of Alva Is it not a most base thing that 300 either Gentlemen or gallant soldiers taken in Jenlis his fight should by the command of Alva either be hanged or undergo some other kind of punishment which thing I do yet perceive to be here in the Court a matter of jesting and laughing A third thing which I did desire to discourse with your Majesty about is the contempt of the Pacificatory Edict offered by those that are in place of Jurisdiction who do in most grievous manner daily violate the faith that was given by you of which faith and oath even foreign Princes are witnesses But as I have often told your Majesty and the Queen-Mother I do not think there is any surer way of preserving peace and publick tranquility than by a religious and severe observance of the Edicts But they are so contemned that of late at Troyes there was an assault made upon the servants of the wife of the Prince of Conde and when as she according to the form of your Edict had chosen a certain Village called Insula in which our Religion should be exercised yet notwithstanding of late a certain man and a nurse and an infant that was brought to the holy font wâ—â—e slain upon the way whiles they were returning from a Sermon that was made in that place August 10th And this happened a little before the 4th Eid 6 til To this the King answered I esteem thee my Father as I have often assured thee for a valiant and faithful person and one that is most careful for my honour Lastly I look upon thee as one of the chiefest and most valiant Commanders of my Kingdom nor if I had any other opinion of thee would I have done what I have for thee As for the Edict which I lately issued out I have always wished and do wish that it may be most diligently observed And to that purpose I have taken care that some choice persons should be sent through the Provinces that may make this their business whom if thou doest suspect others shall be sent in their places for in discourse he had said he did suspect them who had condemned him to death and hanging and set a price of fifty thousand Aurei upon his head Then that he might break off this discourse he added I see my Father that you speak earnestly and that earnestness may hurt both you and your wounds I will take care of this affair and again swearing by the name of God I do assure you that I will most severely revenge this injury upon the Authors of it as if it were offered to my self Then he there is not need of any great search for the Author of the fact nor are the discoveries already made very doubtful But it is enough and upon that account in the most humble manner that I can I give your Majesty thanks that you are pleased graciously to promise me to do me right Then the King taking aside that Gentleman of the household that stood at the dore commanded him to shew him the bullet wherewith Coligny was wounded and which was taken out of the wound that he might look upon it It was a brazen one then he enquired of him first whether much bloud flowed out of the wound next whether Coligny did signify the grievous pains he felt by out-cries and complaints And having commended his constancy and the greatness of his mind he commanded that Gentleman that he should not depart from him These things passed for about the space of an hour in the Chamber of Coligny the King drawing out the time with wandring discourses and that he might put off the business of the Belgick War to the mention of which it is observed that he made no answer Among these discourses Radesianus spoke to a friend of Coligny's concerning the removing him into the Castle of the Louvre for his greater security if the people should tumultuate which thing the King himself did sometime repeat which almost all did interpret as an argument of the King's care of the health of Coligny But when the Physitians and chiefly Francis Mazilles the King 's chief Physitian answered there was danger if his body should be shaken in the carrying whiles his wounds were
fresh he would by no means be removed 13. After the King departed the Nobles of the Protestant party take counsel together and John of Ferriers Vidame of Chartres in the presence of Navar and Conde conjecturing what was indeed the matter said that the Tragedy was begun by the wound of Coligny but would end in the bloud of them all Therefore he thought it most safe that without delay they should depart the City he produced testimonies and tokens for his opinion from the rumors that were spread abroad for it was heard by many when upon the day of Marriage the Protestants went out of the Church that they might not engage in worship the Papists said by way of mirth that within a few days they should hear Mass Also it was openly spoken in discourse by the chief of the City that at that Marriage should be poured out more bloud than wine That one of the Protestant Nobles was advised by the president of the Senate that he should with all his family betake himself for some days into the Country Besides these things the counsel of Johannes Monlucius Bishop of Valence when he was going Ambassador into Poland given to Roch-fou-cault that he would not suffer himself to be intoxicated and turned about by the smoke and unwonted favour of the Court which deservedly ought to be suspected by all wise and cautious persons that he would not be too secure to run himself into danger and that he would timely withdraw himself together with other Nobles from the Court But Teligny being of another mind and saying that he was abundantly satisfied of the sincere love and good will of the King Ferrerius and those that thought as he he did could not be heard The next day the Page was again examined and new witnesses produced In this examination Arnold Cavagnes was engaged for so Coligny did desire and all things were done in shew as if there had been a diligent enquiry into the business The next day when as Coligny and by his command Cornaton in the name of his fellows who he said knew for certain that the Parisians that is LXM deadly enemies of Coligny would tumultuate and take Arms desired of the King and his Brother Anjou a guard of some Souldiers to be set to protect the house of Coligny that if the people should make any disturbance they might be restrained by fear of the King's guards they both of them answered kindly and freely and it was given in command to Cossenius Colonel of the Regiment of the Guards that with some choice Bands he should keep watch before the dores of Coligny To these were joyned to avoid suspition some but few in number of the Switzers of the guards of Navar. Moreover for the greater security it was ordered by the King that the Gentlemen of the Protestants who were in the City should lodge near Coligny's house and it was given in command to Quarter-masters forthwith to assign lodgings and the King gave command with a loud voice that all might hear it to one of the Colonels that no Catholick should be suffered to come thither nor should they spare the life of any that should do otherwise Upon this occasion the Corporals went from place to place and wrote down the names of Protestants and advised them to repair near to Coligny for that the King would have it so These and such like signs and whisperings abroad though they had been enough to have warned the Protestants if they had not been infâ—tuated yet by the constant dissimulation of the King it came to pass that Coligny and Teligny could not perswade themselves that any such cruelty was in his mind Therefore when the Nobles entred into consultation in the Chamber of Cornaton in the house of Coligny upon the same matter and the Visdame of Chartres persevered in the same opinion that they should depart the City as soon as might be and prevent that imminent danger though with some disadvantage to Coligny's health who yet was that day somewhat better Teligny was of opinion and Navar and Conde agreed with him that they should stay in the City otherwise they should offer a great affront to the King that was so well affected towards them 14. There was a suspition lest this should be caried to the King by one that was then present that was Buchavanius Bajancurius one very familiar with the Queen who presently hasted to the Tuilleries where a Counsel was held by the Conspirators under a colour of walking there was the last time that they consulted of the manner of executing the design There were present besides the King Queen and Anjou the Dukes of Nevers and Angolesme the Bastard Biragus Tavannes and Radesianus And since by the death of one man whom the Physitians did affirm was like to recover of his wound the grievance of the Kingdom which was nourished by him and diffused into many could not be extinguished it seemed good that it should be suppressed by the ruine of all and that wrath which God would not have to be satisfied with the bloud of Coligny alone should be poured out upon all the Sectaries That was their voluntary resolution at first and now by the event necessity and force is put upon their counsels that the danger that hangs over the King and the whole Kingdom cannot be avoided without the ruine of Coligny and all the Protestants For what would not he do so long as the faction of the Rebels remains entire after such an injury who when he was no way provoked was so long injurious to the King and hurtful to the Kingdom whom now all might foresee and dread going out of Paris with his party as a Lion out of his den raging against all without respect Therefore the reins are to be let loose to the people who are of themselves ready enough nor ought they any longer to withstand the will of God which would not that more mild Counsels should take effect After the thing is effected there will not want reasons whereby it may be excused the fault being laid upon the Guisians which they would gladly take upon them Therefore all agreed upon the utter ruine of the Protestants by a total slaughter To which opinion the Queen was even by her own nature and proper design enclined some time was spent in deliberating * The Duke of Guise was urgent to have the King of Navar and the Prince of Conde slain with the rest Dav. p. 370. It was also debated whether among the rest they should comprehend the Marshal d'Anville 〈◊〉 his Brothers who professed the Catholick Religion but were nearly related to Colingy but 〈◊〉 were spared 〈◊〉 the eldest 〈…〉 rancy was absent Da. p. 370. whether Navar and Conde should be exempt from the number of the rest and as for Navar all their suffrages agreed upon the account of his Royal Dignity and the Affinity that he had lately contracted For that fact which of it self could not
but be blamed by many would be so much the more blamed if a great Prince near of Bloud to the King joyned in a very late affinity should be slain in the King's Palace in the arms as it were of the King his Brother-in-law and in the embraces of his Wife For there would be no sufficient excuse nor would those arguments prevail to excuse the King which might cast the blame upon the Guisians Concerning Conde there was a greater debate he lying under the load of his Fathers faults yet both the dignity of the man and the authority of Ludovicus Gonzaga Duke of Nevers affirming that he would be loyal and obedient to the King and also offering himself as a surety for him upon the account of that close and manifold relation that was between them for Conde had lately married Mary of Cleve the Sister of Henrica Wife of the Duke of Nevers did prevail that he should be spared and exempt from the number of those that were designed for the slaughter as well as Navar. 15. Upon this the Duke of Anjou and Engolesme the Bastard departing as they rode in their Coach through the City they spread abroad a rumor as if the King had sent for Momorarcy and was about to bring him into the City with a select number of horse The very same hour there was one apprehended who was suspected of the hurt of Coligny who confessed himself to be a servant of the Guises which when it was understood Guise and Aumale and others of the Family went to the King to remove that suspition and complain that they were oppressed through the favour that was shewed to their enemies that the ears of Judges were open to calumnies cast upon them and that tho they were guiltless yet they were manifestly set against that they had a long time observed that they were for what cause they knew not every day less gracious with the King but yet that they did dissemble it and hoped that time which is the best Master of truth would at last inform him more certainly of the whole matter But since they find no place for their innocence they did though unwillingly and as forced to it desire that with his good leave they might return home This was done openly and it was observed that the King answered to these things somewhat coldly and the rather that he might perswade the Protestants that he bare no good will to the Guisians Upon this the King adviseth Navar that he should afford no occasion of mischief to the audacity and violentness of the Guisians things being so enflamed and the people enclining to the Guisian party That he should command those whom he knew most faithful of his servants to come into the Louvre to be ready upon any sudden accident which Navar did interpreting it in good part calling those which were most active to lodge with him that night in the Louvre Castle Wise men also did presage some future commotions when they observed armed men to run up and down about the City and the Louvre the people to mutter threatnings to be every where heard This being brought to Coligny he who no way doubted of the good will of the King but thought it to be the devise of the Guisians to enflame the people sends one to the King who should in his name acquaint him with it To whom the King answered that Coligny need fear nothing for those things were done by his command to compose the tumults of the people that were stirred up by the Guisians Therefore that his mind might be secure It was also told Teligny the very same hour that Porters laden with Arms were seen to be brought into the Louvre but he contemned the message and answered that unnecessary suspitions were sought for in this sad and dismal time and forbad that this should be made known to Coligny affecting the unseasonable reputation of prudence and moderation from his despising of reports and consequently of dangers and excusing the matter as if those Arms were carried into the Louvre upon the account of a Castle represented and assaulted in a shew 16. Forthwith Guise to whom the chief command of the execution of the whole matter was committed calling together in the deep of night some Captains of the Switzers and the Captains of the French Troops explains to them the Kings will and pleasure That the time was come wherein by the King's command punishment should be taken upon that head that was so hateful both to God and men and also upon the whole faction of the Rebels that the beast was now in their toils that they should take care that he escape not that they should not be wanting to such an opportune occasion of obtaining a more glorious triumph than they ever yet obtained in all their former Wars with the bloud of so many Royallists that the Victory was easy that rich spoils are proposed which they might acquire without bloud as rewards of their good service Upon this the Switzers are placed about the Louvre to whom are joyned the French Troops and command was given that they should look to it that no man of the Family of Navar or Conde should go out of the Louvre The keeping of Coligny's house was committed to Cossenius to whom was given a party of Musquetteers to lie in the neighbouring houses that none might escape them Matters being so disposed as to the foreign Souldiers the Duke of Guise calls to him John Charron President of the Court of Revenues who after a long canvasing and often repulses was at last put into that Office in the place of Marcellus Provost of the Merchants and commands him that he should give notice to the Corporals to command their Souldiers to their Arms but that they should remain at the Town-Hall till midnight there to understand what was needful to be done The same thing was given in command to Marcellus who though he was discharged of his office yet for some private good offices that he had done was retained in the Queens favour and kept his authority though he lost his dignity He by often going to the Court brought himself into an opinion with men that he was in favour with the King and Queen and upon that account was acceptable to the people and from his mouth the people that were of themselves apt enough to stirs were certified That it was the King's pleasure that they should take Arms to cut off Coligny and the other Rebels that therefore they should see to it that none were spared nor that those wicked men should be any where concealed So the King will have it so he commands who also will provide that other Cities of the Kingdom do presently follow the example of the Parisians The sign at which they should rise is the tolling of the bell of the Palace-clock The Mark whereby they should be distinguished from others is white linen-cloath bound about their left arm and a white cross in
his office Also Dionysius Perrotus the Son of Aemilius Senator of Paris a man not less renowned for his integrity than his knowledge in law worthy of such a Father underwent the same fortune 19. Nor did they spare those whom Navar being advised so to do by the King had brought into the Palace for they were by the King's command made to come down from their Masters chambers into the Court-yard and being brought out of the Palace their swords being taken from them they were many of them presently slain at the Gate others were hurried to the slaughter without the Palace Among these were Pardallanius Sammartinus Bursius and Armannus Claromontius Pilius famous for his late valour in defending the Temple of St. John He when he was led out to be butchered standing before the heaps of the slain is said to cry out Is this the King's faith Are these his promises Is this the peace But thou O most great and most good God behold the cause of the oppressed and as a just Judge avenge this perfidy and cruelty and putting off his Coat which was very rich gave it to a certain Gentleman of his acquaintance that stood by Take this from me as a remembrance of my unworthy death which gift he not accepting under that condition whiles Pilius said these things he was thrust into the side with a spear of which would he fell down and died Leiranus now grievously wounded but escaping out of the hands of the murderers rushing into the Queen of of Navars chamber and hiding himself under her bed was preserved and being carefully commended by Margaret to the King's Physitians was healed Bellonarius formerly Tutor to the King of Navar having a long time lien under the Gout was slain in his bed The King received to his grace Grammontanus Lord of Gascoign Johannes Durforlius Duralius Joachimus Roaldus Gamarius and Buchavarius having promised to be faithful to him and they were worth their word Then the King calls Navar and Conde and tells them that from his youth for many years the publick peace had been disturbed by often renewed wars to the great damage of his affairs but now at last by the grace of God he had entred into such a course as would extirpate all causes of future wars That Coligny the author of these troubles was slain by his command and that the same punishment was taken throughout the City upon those wicked men who were infected with the poison of superstition That he remembred what great mischiefs had befallen him from them Navar and Conde who had headed a company of profligate persons and seditiously raised war against him That he had just reason to revenge these injuries and now also had an opportunity put into his hand but that he would pardon what was past upon the account of their consanguinity and the lately contracted affinity and lastly of their age and that he would think that these things were not done by the advice or fault of them but of Coligny and his followers who had already or should shortly receive the just deserts of their wickedness that he was willing that those things should be buried in oblivion provided they would make amends for their former offences by their future loyalty and obedience and renouncing their profane superstitious Doctrine would return to the Religion of their Ancestors that is to the Roman Catholick Religion for he would have only that Religion professed in his Kingdom which he had received from his fore-Fathers Therefore that they should look to it that they do comply with him herein otherwise they might know that the same punishment which others had suffered did hang over their heads To this the King of Navar did most humbly beg that no violence might be offered to their consciences nor persons and that then they would remain faithful to him and were ready to satisfy him in all things But Conde added that he could not perswade himself that the King who had engaged himself by solemn oath to all the Protestant Princes of his Kingdom would upon any account violate it or hearken to their enemies and adversaries in that matter As to Religion that was not to be commanded that his life and fortunes were in the King's power to do with them what he pleased but that he knew he was to give an account only to God of that Religion that he had received from God Therefore that he was fixed and resolved never to recede from his Religion which he knew assuredly was true no not for any present danger of life With which answer the King being highly provoked he called Conde stubborn seditious Rebel and the son of a Rebel and told him that if he did not change his mind within three days his head should pay for his obstinacy 20. Many of the Protestant Nobles had taken up their lodgings in the Suburbs of St. German and could not be perswaded to lie in the City Among these were Johannes Roanus Frontenaeus Godofridus Caumonlius Vidame of Chartres Gabriel Mongomerius Jo. Lafinius Bellovarius Segurius Pardallanius and others The destroying of whom was given in charge to Laurentius Mougironus and besides Marcells was ordered to take care that 1000 Souldiers of the City Trained-Bands should be sent thither to Maugironus who went but flowly on in his business While this was doing tidings came to Mongomery of the rumor of taking up Arms in the City who signified the same to the Vidame of Chartres and presently they met all together uncertain what was to be done for that many confiding in the King's faithfulness perswaded themselves that this was done without the King's command by the Guisians encouraged by the forwardness of the seditious people therefore they thought it was best to go to the King and that he would succour them against any violence In that doubtfulness of mind though the more prudent did not doubt that these things were done by agreement and by the King's command were many hours spent so that they might easily have been destroyed but that another impediment happened to the Conspirators for whiles Maugironus doth in vain expect Parisians to be sent from Guise who were all busied in plundering Guise impatient of further delays calls forth the King's Guards out of the Louvre intending whiles they passed the River to go thither himself And when he came to the gates it did too late appear that they had mistaken the keys therefore while they sent for others it being now broad day the Switzers and others of the King's Guards passing the Siene were seen from the other side and upon the discharging of a Gun on the other side of the River as was thought by the King's command the Associates take counsel to fly and before they came were gotten a good way off Guise pursued Mongomery and others to Montfort but in vain and meeting with Sanleodegarius he commands him that he should follow them with fresh horses There were some sent to Udencum and to Dreux who
should intercept them if they went that way but all in vain Franciscus Bricomotius who could not be destroyed in the tumult flies to the English Ambâ—ssadors lodgings †In Bernardinorum caio. where he for some days lay hid Arnoldus Cavagnius also hid himself not far from hence with a friend who fearing the danger defired him to provide for himself but both being taken were cast into the Palace prison and with that event which we shall shew anon In the mean time Guise with Aumale and Angolesme return into the City where the King's Guards did commit outrages upon the lives and fortunes of the Protestant Nobles and Gentlemen even of those that were their familiars and well known to them This work being assigned to them in particular whiles the people incited by the Sheriffs wardsmen and tything-men that ran about did furiously rage with all manner of licentiousness and excess against their fellow-Citizens and a sad and horrid face of things did every where appear For the streets and ways did resound with the noise of those that flocked to the slâ—ughter and plunder and the complaints and doleful out-cries of dying men and those that were nigh to danger were every where heard The carkasses of the slain were thrown down from the windows the Courts chambers of houses were full of dead men their dead bodies rolled in dirt were diagged through the streets bloud did flow in such abundance through the chanels of the streets that full streams of blond did run down into the River the number of the slain men women even those that were great with child and children also was innumerable Annas Terrerius Chapius being eighty years old and an Advocate of great name in the Senate was slain Also Jo. Lomerius Secretary to the King having compounded for his safety was thrown into Gaol by Johannes Parisiensis Judge of Criminals and having sold * Versalium fundum his Estate at Versailles to his adversary with whom he had a Suit depending about it at a low rate and leaving his office upon the account of another was afterwards slain by the command of those with whom he had those dealings Magdalena Brissonetta the Relict of Theobaldus Longiolius an Irish-man Master of the Requests Neece of Cardinal Gulielmus Brissonettus and besides a woman of most rare accomplishments and of no mean learning when in old apparel taking with her her daughter Francisca and Johannes Spina a noted Preacher who was her houshold Chaplain she would have fled out of the City being discovered by the cut-throats and in vain put to renounce her Religion being thrust into the body with pike-staves half dead she was tumbled from the Key into the River where swimming about a company of boats being drawn together as if it had been to destroy a mad dog with many gentle blows she was at length most inhumanely drowned Spina not being known escaped in the throng and CL. Marcellus coming in they spared her daughter for her ages sake Peter Ramus who was born at Vermand when he had for a long time taught good learning Philosophy at last Mathematicks in Prelaea Schola of which he was Master and afterward in the King's School he at last brought erroneous doctrine into his Philosophy vehemently opposing Aristotle both by word and writing When as there were great disputes between him and Jacobus Carpentarius Claromontanus as formerly there had been greater with Antonius Goveanus and Joachinus Periomus yet herein he was worthy of commendation that by his wit diligence assiduity and wealth he did what in him lay to promote Learning instituting a Mathematick Lecture to which he gave out of his own Estate a yearly stipend of 300 pounds He being drawn out of his Cell wherein he had hid himself by some murderers sent by Carpentar his Rival who also promoted the sedition after he had payed some mony receiving some wounds was thrown out of a window into the yard whereby his bowels gushed out which the boys set on by the fury of their enraged Masters threw about the streets and whipping his carkass with scourges in reproach to his profession dragged it about in a most shameful and cruel manner Which thing when it came to the hearing of Dionysius Lambinus Monstroliensis King's professor of humanity and of both Languages and who by many books that he had published deserved well of Learning and he was otherwise no friend to the Protestant Doctrine yet was he so affrighted at the example of Ramus that he could not be comforted and it made so deep an impression upon his mind that he fell into a most grievous disease of which about a month after he died From their contentions the name of Politick took its beginning which afterwards became a note of faction being given by the seditious by those that favoured the King's party and the peace of the Kingdom 21. This fury did extend it self to those that never professed the Protestant Doctrine For Gulielmus Bertrandus Villemorius Master of Requests son of Jo. Bertrand Vice-Chancellor and afterwards Cardinal a good man and liberal and one that was injurious to none was spoiled of his mony and then slain by cut-throats sent by the above-mentioned Fergo Also Jacobus Poliardus a Senator of Paris and Fellow of the Sacred Colledge otherwise an unquiet and quarrelsome man and one that was troublesome to the Parisian Captains when he had for some days lien hid in the house of a Priest his Friend being discovered by the pratling of a Girl was at length delivered into the hands of the murderers and by one Cruciarius that was his name a Goldsmith after he had for some time kept him between hope and fear had his head cut off I have often beheld and heard that man that very well deserved a Gallows in a strange kind of cruel madness boast stretching forth his naked arm that with this arm he had in that massacre slain above 400 men Afterward whether induced to it by repentance or the terror of his conscience he put on hair-cloath and being infamous for so many murders that he might avoid the sight of men he went into solitude professing the life of an Anchoret where yet he could not forget his cruel nature for in these late wars he was accused and almost convicted that by the help of such men as himself he had cut the throat of a Flemish Merchant whose necessity compelled him to repair to his Cell Lastly Petrus Salseda a Spaniard †Vici in Mediomatricibus praefectus who stirred up the Cardinals war of which we have spoken before though he was no way enclined to the Protestant Doctrine was the same day slain by those who sought to revenge a former injury One Ronlart a Catholick and Canon of Nostre Dame and also a Counsellor in the Parliament uttering certain speeches in misliking this lawless kind of proceeding without justice was apprehended and committed to prison and murthered as disorderly
was by him obtained of the King 24. Such cruelty raging every where while the Heavens seemed more than ordinarily serene an accident hapned whereby the minds of the enraged people were after a strange manner inflamed An Oxyacantha which is a kind of shrub which they call white-thorn growing in the Church-yard of St. Innocents did whether of its own accord which sometimes happens when nature failing that plant is come to that that it is about to dry up or whether by warm water poured upon it by impostors did in an unusual time put forth its flower All which the factions flattering themselves in their madness did refer to God signifying by these tokens that what they had done was acceptable to him And therefore they said that the Heavens did rejoyce to see the Massacre of the Protestants And James Carpenter alluding to the Month in a writing that he published called that light Augustae Therefore the seditious flocking together at the fame of the blossoming thorn did skip about with great joy which they also testified by the unusual beating of a Drum though without command for even that they might do then and so interpreted it as if the Protestants being rooted out the Catholick Religion and the Kingdom of France should recover its ancient splendor and flower But the Protestants argued otherwise and if this were to be looked upon as a Miracle they said this was portended by this sign that though the Church might seem by this wound to be utterly extinct yet it should come to pass that it should in a wonderful and incomprehensible manner revive and flourish which also they did confirm by the example of the wonder shewed to Moses in the bush which though it burned yet was it not consumed They added that it might be said rather to belong to the commendation of innocence than the approbation of butchery because the thorn blossomed in a place which took its name from Innocents The same day some drawn out of the King's Life-Guard by Gaspar Castreus Nancaeus are by the King's command sent to †Castillionem ad Lupam Chastillon to take and bring Coligny's wife and children as also the sons of Andoletus But Franciscus the Eldest Son of Coligny and Vidus Lavallus the Eldest Son of Andoletus had already saved themselves by flight All the rest are taken and brought with all their precious houshold-stuff to Paris 25. It was the King's design that as soon as the slaughter of Coligny and his followers had been performed 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-â—uled 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 crimina Gentis So that he seems to have commended the King's art by a speech fitted to the present time and place rather than from his heart The advising of the King to enquire into this conspiracy is thought to have been from James Morvillerius Bishop of Orleans who had left his Bishoprick to give himself wholly to the Court a man of a cautious nature but moderate and just and who was never the author of that bloudy counsel But when as that which was done could not be undone he thought it was best for the reputation of the King and for the publick Peace that since the odium of it could not be wholly abolished yet that it might by some means be mitigated he perswaded the King and Queen that to the things being now done they should though in a preposterous manner apply the authority of Law and that proof being made of the conspiracy judgment should be passed upon the conspirators in form of Law which thing Thuanus himself approved being consulted about it by Morvillerius upon the King's command Two days after a Jubilee is appointed and Prayers are made by the King and a full Court in a great assembly of people and thanks were returned to God for that things had succeeded so happily and according to their desires And the same day an Edict was published wherein the King declared that Whatsoever had happened in this matter was done by his express command not through hatred of their Religion or that it should derogate from the Edicts of Pacification which he would have to stand still in force and to be religiously observed but that he might prevent the wicked conspiracy of Coligny and his confederates Therefore that he did will and command that all Protestants should live at home quietly and securely under his protection and patronage and did command all his Governors to take diligent care that no violence or injury should be offered to them either in their lives goods or fortunes adding a sanction that whosoever did otherwise should understand that he did it under pain of life To these things a clause was finally added which the Protestants did interpret to contradict what he had said before that Whereas upon the account of their meetings and publick Assemblies great troubles and grievous offences had been stirred up they should for the future abstain from such meetings whether publick or private upon what pretence soever till further order was taken by the King upon pain of life and fortunes to those that disobeyed 26. These Edicts and Mandates were diversly entertained in the Provinces according to the divers natures and factions of the Governors for those that were addicted to the party of the Momorancies made a moderate use of them but great was the rage and fury of others to whom secret commands were brought not in writing but by Emissaries following the example of the Parisian Massacre The beginning was at Meaux as being nearest where the same day that the Massacre had been at Paris above two hundred were thrown into prison by Cossetus Advocate of the Treasury an impudent man who was chiefly assisted by Dionysius Rollandus an Apparitor and Columbus a Mariner The next day they set upon the Market that is out of the City and the men being slipt away they fell upon the women whereof 25 were slain and some of them violated by the rude murderers The day following after they had every where rifled the houses of the suspected they come to those that were imprisoned who being called out one by one by Cossetus himself were there slain as Oxen by Butchers in a Slaughter-house and thrown into the Castle-ditch and the greatest part of them the cut-throats being wearied were drowned in the River Marne And then Cosset us exhorts the neighbouring places that they should proceed in what had been so happily begun But the presence of Momorancy President of l'Isle la France who was then at Cantilia not far from thence did hinder the seditious from stirring at Senlis But great was the rage at Orleans which being once or twice taken by the Protestants the sad ruines of the demolished Churches lying open to the eyes of all did enkindle the minds of the people to revenge their injuries being yet fresh the day following therefore they began upon Campellus Bovillus one of the King's Counsellors whem being ignorant of what had happened at Paris Curtius a Weaver the leader of the seditious with some of his party
Appennage to his Brethren and in giving them authority which having read and acquainting Alanson with it whom she had perceived to favour Coligny This is your beloved cordial friend saith the Queen who thus advised the King To whom Alanson answered How much he loved me I know not but this advice could proceed from none but one that was faithful to the King and careful for his affairs Again there was among his papers found a breviate wherein among other reasons that he gave for the necessity of a War with the Spaniards in the Low-Countreys this was added as being omitted in the Speech which he made to the King lest it should be divulged and therefore was to be secretly communicated to the King that if the King did not accept of the condition that the Low-Countreys offered he should †V. Walsingham◠Letter 14 Septemb. 1572. in the Compleat Ambassador p. 241. not transfer it to his neighbours of England who though they were now as things stood friends to the King if once they set footing in the Low-Countreys and the Provinces bordering upon the Kingdom would resume their former minds and being invited by that conveniency of friends would become the worst enemies to the King and Kingdom Which being likewise imparted to Walsingham Queen Elizabeths Ambassador and the Queen telling him that by that he might judge how well Coligny was affected towards the Queen his Mistress who so much loved him He made her almost the same answer and said He did not know how he was affected towards the Queen his Mistress but this he knew that that counsel did savour of one that was faithful to the King and most studious of the honour of France and in whose death both the King and all France had a great loss So both of them by almost the same answer frustrated her womanish policy not without shame unto her self About the end of the month wherein Coligny was slain the King fearing lest the Protestants should grow desperate in other Provinces writes to the Governors with most ample commands Carnii Comes and principally to Feliomrus Chabolius President of Burgundy in which he commanded that he should go through the Cities and Towns that were under his jurisdiction and friendly convene the Protestants and acquaint them with the tumult at Paris and the true causes thereof That nothing was done in that affair through hatred of their Religion or in prejudice to the favour that was granted them by the last Edict but that he might prevent the conspiracy made by Coligny and his confederates against the King the Queen the King's Brethren the King of Navar and other Princes and Nobles That it was the King's pleasure that his Edicts might be observed and that the Protestants every where taking forth Letters of security from the Presidents should live quietly and safely under the King's protection upon pain of death to any that should injure or molest them in any thing On the other hand he should admonish the Protestants that they should keep themselves quiet at home and because in their Meetings and publick Assemblies there used to be such Counsels among the Protestants as were suspitious to Catholicks and which might put them upon new stirs therefore that they should abstain from those meetings and expect the same favour and safety from the King's clemency and goodness as he doth exercise towards others But if they should foolishly neglect this advice command and promise of the King and should presume to meet publickly stir up troubles and take up Arms under colour of their own defence he would then proceed against them as against Rebels To the same effect were Letters sent to Melchior Monpesatus President of Poictou Pria President of Toures and the Presidents of other Provinces Chabolius managed his office with great prudence and moderation having learnt that the Protestants who had hitherto been exasperated by severity and cruelty of punishments might be better reduced to their duty by clemency and mildness And matters were ordered without almost any bloud-shed in Burgundy many returning either through fear or of their own accord to the Religion of their Ancestors renouncing the Protestant Doctrines Only Claromontius Travius of the prime Nobility whose Sister Helena Antonius Grammontanus had married was when the news was hot slain at Dijon in the absence of Chabotius by the people Those that were suspected at Mascon being by the King's command apprehended and cast into prison by Philibertus sustained no further damage 30. So foul a tempest in France being in some sort allayed and the liberty of killing and plundering repressed when the more prudent that yet no way favoured the Protestant party did upon the sad thought of the present state of things by little and little come to themselves and abhorring the fact did curiously enquire into the causes of it and how it might be excused they thus judged That no example of like cruelty could be found in all Antiquity though we turned over the Annals of all Nations These kinds of outrages had been confined to certain men or to one place and might have been excused by the sense of injury newly offered or their rage did only exercise it self upon those whom it was their interest to remove out of the way For so by the command of Mithridates King of Pontus upon one message and the signification of one Letter 40000 Romans were slain in one day throughout all Asia The Sicilian Vespers So Peter King of Arragon commanded 8000 French-men to be slain in Sicily who had seized upon it in his absence But their case was far different from this For those Kings exercised their rage upon strangers and foreigners but this King upon his own subjects who were not more committed to his power than to his faith and trust They were obliged no otherwise by their faith given than to the strangers themselves but he was bound in a late league with his neighbouring Kings and Princes to keep that Peace which he had sworn to They used no arts unworthy of royal dignity to deceive them he for a snare abused his new engaged friendship and the sacred Nuptials of his own Sister whose wedding garment was even stained with bloud These are the vertues that use to be commended in Kings Justice Gentleness and Clemenoy but savageness and cruelty as in all others so especially in Princes use to be condemned Famous through all ages was Publius Scipio who was wont to say he had rather save one Citizen than slay a thousand enemies and Antonius who was called the Pious did often use that saying Kings indeed have power of life and death over the Subjects of their Realm but with this limitation that they should not proceed against them till their cause was heard upon a fair tryal This rage and blindness of mind was sent by God upon the French as a judgment for the daily execrations and reproaches of the Deity from which the King himself ill educated
by his Mother and by those Tutors that she appointed him did not at all abstain the example whereof proceeding from the Court to the Cities and from the Cities to the Country Towns and Villages they now at every third word swore by the head death bloud heart of God Moreover the patience of God was even wearied with their Whoredoms Adulteries and such lusts as are not fit to be spoken Lastly nature it self doth now expostulate as it were with God for his so long patience and forbearance nor could the Country of France any longer bear such prodigious wickedness For as for the causes which are pretended against Coligny they are feigned with such improbability that they can hardly perswade children much less can they be proved For how is it probable that Coligny should enter into such a conspiracy within the walls of Paris who though he were guilty before the Pacification to suppose that yet certainly after the Edict if indeed the publick Faith and the King's promises ought to be observed he came to the King guiltless altogether abhorring a Civil War and solicitous only about the Belgick War But whereas they say he conspired after he had received his wounds this hath less colour of truth For how could Colligny that was indisposed by two such wounds now grown old disabled in both his arms one of which the Physitians tallted of cutting off rise with three hundred young men that attended him against an Army of sixty thousand men that bare him deadly hatred and that were well appointed with Arms How could he in so little time consult concerning so great and vast a design for he lived hardly forty hours after he had received his wound in which all conference was forbidden him by his Physitians Then had he been accused of any crime was he not committed to Cossenius and his guards and the passages being every where secured was he not in the King's power that he might in a moment if it had so pleased the King been thrust into prison and witnesses being prepared after the manner of judicial proceedings might he not have been proceeded against in form of Law Moreover if Coligni with his Dependents and Clients had conspired against the King why must needs the rest that were innocent so many Noble Matrons and Virgins who came thither upon the account of the Marriage so many great-bellied women so many ancient persons so many bed-ridden persons of both Sexes and all professions that were ignorant of these last counsels of Coligni be comprehended in the same guilt To whom doth it not seem absurd and most ridiculous that Coligni should at so unseasonable a time conspire against Navar that professed the same Religion with him and whom he had in his power for four years together Thus many did discourse and so they judged that upon the account of this fact the French Name would for a long time labour under an odium and infamy and that posterity would never forget an act of so great unworthiness Typographical Errors to be Corrected as followeth in THe Hist of the Massacre Pag. 5 l. 1. Burleigh l. 7. Cosmus p. 7. l. 4. compact p. 8. l. 10. when he l. 36. Palace near the Louvre p. 12. l. 1. receive p. 13. l. 28. Antonius Marafinus Guerchius without commas so p. 14. l. 2. Rochus Sorbaeus Prunaeus l. 7. Armanus Claromontius Pilius l. 8. Moninius l. 26. racket p. 18. l. 7. your Kingdom p. 21. l. 9. as he did p. 28. l. 11. Cossenius l. 36. Atinius l. 37. Sarlaboux p. 29. l. 5. Merlin the Minister Coligny p. 32. l. 32. Claromontius Marquess of Renel p. 34. l. 19. Caumontius p. 35. l. 25. Monralbertus Roboreus Joach Vassorius Cunerius Rupius Columbarius Velavaurius Gervasius Barberius Francurius p. 36. l. 15. Armanus Claromontius Pilius l. 32. Bellovarius l. 36. Durfortius Duracius l. 37. Gomacius Buchavanius p. 40. l. 36. Perionius p. 41. l. 13. Languages who had private fends and contentions with Carpentar l. 22. to those l. 30. Roliardus p. 43. l. 2. Sancomontius Sauromanius l. 3. Bricomotius p. 53. l. 33. Meletinus p. 57. l. 17. Arles where l. 36. suspition of poison given p. 58. l. 2. Mombrunius p. 62. l. 20. Helionorus Chabotius p. 63. l. 11. Chabotius THe Hist of the Powder-Plot Pag. 8. l. 27. Harrington p. 14. l. 30. detest p. 15 l. 21. for wikes r. de Vic p. 16. in marg So on the p. 22. l. 27. dele Look entituled l. 29. for Provincial r. Father General A TRUE NARRATION Of that Horrible CONSPIRACY AGAINST King JAMES And the whole PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND Commonly called the Gun-Powder TREASON Written in Latine by Jacobus Augustus Thuanus Privy-Councillor to the King of France and President of the Supream Senate of that Kingdom Faithfully rendred into English LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew Bell by Flying-Horse Court in Fleet-street 1674. MDCV. The History of the Powder-Plot Translated out of Thuanus lib. 135. NOw shall we in a contiued Relation declare that Horrid and by all Parties justly * So detestable it seems it was to some of the Students of the English Colledge at Rome that being informed of the discovery of the Plot Sixteen of them abhorring such jugling and bloody Designs forsook the Colledge slipt into France some of them turning to the Church of England whither they came Foulis Hist of Popish Treasons li. 10. c. 2. p. 692. detested Conspiracy entred into a-against the King of Great Britain which being discovered about the end of this year 1605 was in the next year suppressed by the Death of the Conspirators To the Petition for Liberty of Conscience made by the Papists in the former Session of Parliament and rejected by the King there was a rumour there would be another preferred at the next Sessions which had been now often deferred which should be in no danger of being denyed as the former but should carry with it a necessity of being granted by the King whither he would or not Therefore those that managed the Affairs of the Kingdom under a generous and no wayes suspcious King fearing nothing worse did make it their business to avoid such Petitions and that necessity that did attend them But among the Conspirators it was consulted not how they might obtain the Kings favour which they now despaired of but how they might revenge that repulse though with the ruine of the Kingdom which the other never thought of The beginning of these Counsels are to be derived from the latter end of Q. Elizabeth For then as appeared afterwards by proofs and confessions Robert Winter to whom Oswald Tesmond alias Greenwell of the Society of the Jesuits joyned himself as his Companion was by the advice of Hen. Garnet Provincial or Superiour of the said Society in England Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham of the Gentry instigating privately sent into Spain in the name of the Catholicks with Letters Commendatory
to Arthur Creswell of the same Society living in Spain Des. 1601. Mandatis and with Commands to the King of which this was the summe That he should forthwith send an Army into England for which the Catholicks would be ready in Arms as soon as it came over In the mean while that he should assign yearly Pensions to some Catholick Gentlemen Furthermore that he should insinuate it to the King that there were some Gentlemen and Military persons that were aggrieved at the Present state of things whom he might easily draw to his Part by relieving their necessities And whereas the greatest difficulty after the Landing such an Army would be for supply of Horses they in England would take care to have Two thousand Horses ready provided upon all occasions This thing was secretly transacted by the Mediation of Creswell with Petrus Francesa Secretary to King Philip and Franciscus Sandovallius Duke of Lerma and he affirmed that the thing would be very acceptable to King Philip and that he had offered his utmost assistance that it was also agreed among them of the Place of Landing For if the forces were great then Kent and Essex would be most commodious for their Landing if less Milford in Wales and that King Philip had promised by Count Miranda toward that Expedition Ten hundred thousand Crowns Decies centena aurcorum M. Stored with these promises Winter returns into England and acquaints Garnet Catesby and Tresham what he had done These things were transacted under Q Elizabeth who dying about this time Mar. 1603. Christopher Wright who was privy to these Matters is speedily sent into Spain who bringing the News of the Queens Death Sir Will. Stanly presseth the business of the Pensions and the Expedition With him was sent from Bruxells by William Stanly Hugh Owen and Balduinus 22 Jun. 1603. one of the Society of the Jesuits Guido Fâ—wkes with Letters to Creswell that he should speed the business To him was given in Command that he should signifie to the King that the Condition of the Catholicks would be more hard under the new King then it had been under Q. Elizabeth and therefore that he should be no means desist from so laudable an Enterprize That Milford lay open for an easie Landing to Spinola But the state of things was changed by the death of the Queen and King Philip returned an Answer worthy of a King that he could no longer attend to their Petitions for that he had sent Ambassadors into England to treat of Peace with the new King Therefore despairing of their design as to King Philip the Conspirators fly to their last and desperate Counsels and in the first place they make it their business to satisfie their Consciences and that being done they confirm their resolutions to attempt some great Enterprize And thus their Divines discoursed To depose Kings to grant their Kingdoms to others is in the power of the Supream Judge of the Church But all Hereticks being ipso jure separated from communion of the Faithful are every year on Holy Thursday Caena Domini excommunicated by the Pope And this holdeth not only in Professed Hereticks but in those that are covertly such because being reputed ipso Jure Excommunicate they do incur the same Penalties which are ipso facto deserved by professed Hereticks From thence it follows that Kings and other Christian Princes if they fall into Heresie may be deposed and their Subjects discharged of their Allegiance Nor can they recover their Right again no not though they should be reconciled to the Church When it is said that the Church the Common Mother of all doth shut her bosome against none that return to her this is to be understood with a distinction viz. provided it be not to the damage or danger of the Church For this is true as to the Soul but not as to the Kingdom Nor ought this punishment to be extended only to Princes that are thus infected but also to their Sons who for their Fathers Sin are excluded from Succession in the Kingdom For Heresie is a Leprosie and an Hereditary Disease and to speak more plainly he loseth his Kingdom that deserteth the Roman Religion he is to be accursed abdicated proscribed neither is he nor any of his Posterity to be restored to the Kingdom as to his Soul he may be absolved by the Pope only Thinking themselves abundantly secured within by these reasonings they begin to seek outward strengthenings to their Conspiracy and chiefly Secresie which they sealed by Confession May 1604. and the receiving of the Sacrament To this end there was an Oath drawn up amongst them in which they did engage their Faith by the H. Trinity and the Sacrament which they were presently to receive that they would neither directly nor indirectly by word or circumstance discover the Plot now to be communicated to them nor would they desist from prosecuting it unless allowed by their Associates Thus being encouraged by the Authority of their Divines they betake themselves to the adventure as not only lawful laudable but meritorious This was done before John Gerard of that Society Unto this after Confession by the Sacrament of the Holy Altar were drawn in the next May at first five of the Conspirators Robert Catesby Tho. Winter Tho. Percy Kinsman to the E. of Northumberland John Wright and the aforementioned Fawkes called out of Flanders Catesby the Author of this Tragedy thought it not enough that this or that or any single person should be aimed at but that all together and at the same time should be comprehended in this Conspiracy For so he reasoned with himself The King himself might many wayes be taken away but this would be nothing as long as the Prince and the Duke of York were alive again if they were removed yet this would advantage nothing so long as there remained a Parliament so vigilant so circumspect to whatever might happen or if the Parliament could or the chief Members of it could be destroyed there would remain still the Peers of the Realm so many Prudent Persons so many powerful Earls addicted to that Party whom they could hardly resist and who by their Authority Wealth and Dependants would be able if occasion should be to restore things to their former state Therefore not by delayes but at one blow all were to be swallowed up and so laudable an Atchievement was to be brought to effect altogether and at once At Westminster there is an old Palace of very great Honor and Veneration for its Antiquity in which the great Councils of the Kingdom are used to be celebrated which by a word borrowed from us they call a Parliament In this the King with His Male issue the Bishops of His Privy Councel the Peers the English Nobility the Chief Magistrates and those that are delegated from particular Counties Cities Towns and Burroughs in short the Men of greatest Wisdom and Counsel do meet together
did revolve in his mind that that store of wood in the house of Percy where he seldom resided was not brought in thither to no purpose and that that Servant of Percy whom he saw in the Cellar looked like a desperate wicked Knave All which things did increase the Kings suspition who would have that Vault further searched again but least if nothing were found the Counsellors should make themselves ridiculous to the People as if they were afraid of every light report and moreover fearing least whiles they appeared to suspect Percy who was allied in Blood to the chiefest Peers of the Realm they should seem to suspect the Earl of Northumberland himself yet when the safety of the King did prevail upon them they so ordered the matter that search should be made without noise or injury to any It was given in command to Sir Thomas Knevet Justice of Peace for Westminster that in the dead of the Night he should go with a convenient company to that house and should take Wineard a long with him under pretence that he had lost some Hangings and Tapestry Thither Sir Tho. Knevet going finds Fawks Percy 's Domestick Servant who under a feigned name called himself John Johnson before the House booted and habited for a Journey and he gives command presently to lay hold on him From thence going into the Cellar he speedily removes the Wood and Coal which being removed the Treason appeared one little Barrel of Gun-powder being first discovered by it self and afterward the heap being removed 36 Barrels of different magnitude were found there Then turning to the Prisoner and examining his Garments they found in them tinder and three Match cords But he being taken in the Fact and not able to deny the case being now desperate he of his own accord confessed the Crime and with an unappalled countenance as he was a man of a resolute mind to undertake any desperate attempt he added that it was well for them that they found him before the house now lately come out of the Cellar in which all things were ready for if they had found him within he would not have stood to have buried himself and them together by putting fire to the Train Knevet having discovered the matter returns forthwith rejoicing to the Palace about Four a Clock in the Morning and acquaints Salisbury and the Lord Chamberlain who presently with a noise rush into the Kings Bed Chamber and tell him the Treason was detected and they had the Author of it in Custody and Bonds The fame of this being spread abroad for in so great a matter of Joy it could not be concealed the Conspirators fly some this way some that way and meet together at Holbech at the house of Stephen Littleton in the borders of Stafford-shire Thither came those that were privy to the Conspiracy out of Warwick shire and Worcester-shire although they were ignorant of the discovery of the Plot having taken away by force from Gentlemens houses their Warr-horses thereby giving a manifest token what they would have done when they had got the power in their hands when as they ravaged with such boldness while the event was yet doubtful The Leaders of the Faction trusted that great numbers of Men and a considerable Army would flock into them as soon as they should appear in Arms. But the Lieutenants and Sheriffs being before while the Treason was only suspected Commanded by the King to ride about their Counties their attempts were all made void and scarcely an Hundred of all that number appeared in Arms. And they were encompassed by Richard Walsh High Sheriff of the County of Worcester who came upon them unexpectedly with a strong power of Men so that they could not escape When despairing of Pardon and their troubled Consciences putting them upon desperate exploits the Gun-powder that was drying by the Fire took fire by a sparkle that fell into it and so suddenly burnt the Faces Sides Arms Hands of the Besieged that they were rendered unable to handle their Arms and so lost their strength and courage together Catesby and Percy that were most active together with Tho. Winter while they betake themselves to a corner of the house are both shot through with a Leaden Bullet Winter being wounded fell into the hands of the Kings Party both the Wrights were slain Grant Digby Rockwood and Bates were taken Prisoners Tresham whiles shifting his Lodgings in London he sometime escaped yet at last was taken Robert Winter and Littleton a long time wandring up and down the Woods at last fell into the hands of the Guards and were all committed to the Tower at London Being Examined without the rack for only Fawks was put under this way of Examination and that but moderately they severally discovered the whole series of the matter as we have before recounted and taxed none in Holy Orders which many looked upon as purposely avoided because they were bound by Oath not to do it When as Francis Tresham had before he dyed in Prison of his own accord nominated Henry Garnet being admonished thereof by his Wife he wrote a Letter to the Earl of Salisbury and excusing his too rash confession he so discharged Garnet as much as in him lay by a solemn adjuration interposed that he did entangle himself in a notorious lye affirming †He took it upon his Salvation even in articulo mortis a lamentable thing for within three hours after he dyed Proceedings against the late Traitors C c 2.3 that he had not seen Garnet of sixteen years when as it did appear afterward by the confession of Garnet * And of Mrs. Anne Vaux who confessed that she had seen Mr. Tresham with Garnet at her house three or four times since the Kings coming in and that they were at Erith together the last Summer and that Garnet and she were not long since with Mr. Tresham at his house in Northampton-shire and stayed there Proceedings ibid. that they had often and for a long time together conversed one with another before the six Moneths last past MDCVI Digby confessing the matter as it was in truth endeavoured †He sought to clear all the Jesuits of those practises which they themselves have now confessed ex ore proprio Proceedings ibid. Even at the time of Garnets Tryal was current throughout the Town a report of a Retractation under Bates his hand of his accusation of Greenwell Proceedings ibid. to excuse the horridness of the Fact which he acknowledged and seemed to detect by the desperateness of their condition For being made to hope that the new King upon his coming to the Kingdom would indulge liberty of Conscience to those of the Popish Religion and would permit the exerise thereof with some restriction This being denyed it drove those miserable men unadvisedly to pernicious Counsels Here the Earl of Northampton and Cecil who together with the Earl of Nottingham Suffolk Worcester and Devonshire did fit as
Judges in that Cause interposed affirming that the King never gave them any hope of liberty nor ever engaged his word for it but factious persons did maliciously throw such a report abroad that they might have a pretence wherewith to excuse both themselves and such as they were for the Seditions which they raised in the Kingdom At length being Convicted and found Guilty they are condemned to the punishment wont to be inflicted by the Laws of the Realm upon Rebels and Traytors Everard Digby Robert Winter John Grant and Thomas Bates were Executed at London nigh the Western Gate of St. Paul's Church in the later end of January The day following Tho. Winter Ambrose Rockwood Robert Keies and Guido Fawks who confessed that they had wrought in the Vault were Executed at Westmonaster in the Old Palace yard near the Parliament house Upon this many who for this cause were banished or of their own accord changed their Native Soil were most courteously received at Calice by Dominick Wikes Vicue the Governour there for so the King commanded Of whom one was of such a perverse mind that when Wikes did shew himself to bewail his and his Companions fortune and for their comfort added Though they had lost their Native Countrey yet by the Kings grace they had a Neighbouring one allowed them Nay saith the other It is the least part of our grief that we are banished our Native Countrey and that we are forced to change our Soil because every good man counts that his Countrey where he can be well this doth truly and heartily grieve us that we could not bring so generous and wholsom a design to perfection Which as soon as Vicus contrary to his expectation had heard he could hardly for anger abstain from throwing that man into the Sea who gloryed in such a Plot as was damned by all men For so I remember I have heard Vicus often say when together with Alexander Delbenius he came courteously upon the account of our Ancient friendship to visit me a little before he went from us The Plot being discovered the Parliament among publick rejoycings was held with great security To whom the King made a most weighty Oration and set forth the inexpressible Mercy of God over all his works towards Himself his Family and His whole Kingdom largely aggravating the thing from its several circumstances This temperament being * And this conclusion with no less truth That as upon the one part many honest men seduced with some errors of Popery may yet remaine good faithful Subjects So as on the other part none of those that truly know and believe the whole ground and School conclusions of their Doctrine can ever prove either good Christians or faithful Subjects He had said a little before That many honest men blinded peradventure with some opinions of Popery yet do they either not know or at least not believe all the true grounds of Popery which is indeed the mysterie of Iniquity with great Justice added That he did not say All that were addicted to the Romish Religion were to be included as guilty of this Crime for that there were many among them who although they are involved in Popish Errors so be called them yet had they not lost their true Loyalty to Princes but did observe the Duty both of a Christian man and of a good Subject and that he in return had good thoughts of them and that he thought the Severity of the Puritans was worthy of flames who deny that any Papist can be received into Heaven This likewise was worthy the Wisdom of a most just Prince that he did Judge that no Forreign Prince nor Common-wealth nor none that did manage affairs for them had any hand in this Conspiracy as who did judg of them according to his own mind and temper and would think of others what he would that they should think of him Therefore he did will and require that when any mention should be made of this Conspiracy in Parliament every one should speak and think honourably of them Which thing was done for the respect that he bore to the Spaniards with whom desiring to keep that peace which he of late made with them he would not leave any the least appearance of an alienated affection or a suspicious mind He added this most generously That he would that all men should understand that resting in Gods protection the tranquility and quiet of his mind was not at all disturbed by this accident and that he did wish that his breast were transparent to all that his People might behold the most secret recesses of his heart But when he judged it might conduce much to Example and Publick Security that he should severely punish the Authors of so horrid a Crime and because there was a suspition arising from Letters Confessions and Proofs made that Gerard alias Braek Hen. Garnet Oswald Tesmond alias Greenwell were either privy to or promoters of this Conspiracy therefore upon the XVIII of the Kalends of February 14 Jan. a Proclamation is published against them and a reward proposed to him that should discover and bring them to their Tryal as also a Penalty added against those who after the publishing of this Proclamation should entertain nourish conceal or be any way aiding the persons named in that Proclamation or should at all indeavour that those who are accused of this horrid Crime should not be found out and apprehended In order hereunto diligent search is made and strict enquiry after them who concealed themselves at length Hen. Garnet and Hall and Garnets Servant were taken in the house of Abington a Papist and sent to London and cast into the Tower The wretched Servant for fear least he should be forced by torments to accuse his Master or despairing upon some other account did lay violent hands upon himself in the Prison and with a blunt knife for he was not permitted to have a keen one by him he cut up his own Belly and drew out his Bowels and although his wound was bound up yet before he could be Examined he dyed Garnet was very gently used in his Imprisonment as he himself afterward confessed At first he denyed all things and when it did appear that nothing could be drawn from him voluntarily and the King that he might avoid calumny was unwilling to use torments upon him resolves by craft to illude his cautious pertinacy and to bring him to larger Confessions who would answer little or nothing whether he would or not He secretly imploys a man who by deep groans and frequent complaints against the King and his Counsellors and the deplorable condition of the Catholicks in England did in the end perswade Garnet that he was Popishly enclined and so crept into intimate familiarity with him This man he sends with a Letter to a Gentlewoman that was Imprisoned for her Religion who kept her family at Whitweb and other places and received with great hospitality those
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 he did at first dissemble before the Lords That he did so because he did not think they had had such testimony and proof against him till they did produce it which when they did produce he thought it as honourable for him to confess as it would have been at first to have accused himself He added many things to excuse Greenwell professing that unless he thought he were out of danger he would not have discovered the guilt of his dear Brother in this Conspiracy Then praying that the * He said also I exhort them all to take heed they enter not into any Treasons Rebellions or Insurrections against the King Catholicks in England might not fare the worse upon his account he crossed himself and after he had commended his Soul to God the Ladder being taken away he was hang'd to death In his behalf Andreas Eudaimon-Johannes a Cretian of the same Society wrote an †Against which Robert Abbot wrote his Antilogia edit Lond. 1613. 4. Apology in answer to Sir Edw. Cokes Book Intituled Actio in Proditores for so much the Title doth imply published four years after and approved by Claudius Aquaviva Provincial of the Society in which chiefly the Doctrine of Equivocation is defended and explained from Scripture Fathers Schoolmen and Thomists and the necessity and matter of the Seal of Secresie or Confession is debated and the chief heads of his Accusation are answered the Speech of the Earl of Northampton is refuted Moreover he doth endeavour to evince that Garnet never knew any thing of the Conspiracy but by the way of Confession and that he did always abhor the Treason Then some things are related of his Constancy at his Death which are not related in the History of it And as a conclusion of his Commentary there is the memorable Story of the Straw upon which the Effigies of the Dead was seen at which he saith his Adversaries were very much disturbed Whiles the Body was quartered by the Hangman some drops of blood fell upon the Straw that was there provided to light the fire John Wilkinson who was there present that he might gather some relique of the Body of Garnet carried home with him an Ear that was sprinkled with blood and deposited it with a Gentlewoman Hu. Griffith 's Wife who kept it with great veneration in a Christal-glass Afterward it was observed with great admiration that the Effigies of Garnet was plainly expressed in that blood Then with great Zeal was the fame of the Miracle spread abroad which others did presently elude by a contrary construction saying It ought to seem no wonder if a man brought up among Exiles in Flanders improved at Rome in Italy authorized to a Conspiracy in his own Countrey and breathing nothing but revenge did as long as he lived thirst after the blood of his Countreymen should when dead deserve to be pictured in blood So dangerous a thing it is in these corrupt times to say any thing for the honour of any man in those things which do exceed belief and the common course of Nature which may not presently be retorted to his disparagement This end had this Conspiracy the strangest that either our or former ages do make mention of for contrivance daringness or cruelty For it is often heard of and fame doth deliver it down to posterity that many Princes are cut off by Treachery many Common-wealths are attempted by the snares and falshood of their Enemies But no Countrey no Age ever bred such a Monster of Conspiracy as this wherein the King with the Queen the Parents with their whole Issue all the States of the Kingdom the whole Kingdom it self and in it innumerable Innocents should all be destinâ—d to one Destruction in one moment for a Sacrifice to the lust of a few enraged Minds But it was very well that that Monster which they themselves that bear the blame of it do both by word and writing every where detest being so long before conceived at home should be strangled in the birth before ever it see the light A little while after Isaac Casaubon when he went into England thinking of nothing less than to be engaged in this business upon occasion of another Apology sent to him and by him delivered to the King of Great Britain wrote an Elegant Epistle to Fronto Ducaeus in which he sheweth that Garnet knew otherwise then under the Seal of Confession of the Powder Conspiracy by his own Confession and Testimony written with his own hand and doth at large discuss the Doctrine of Equivocation as ensnaring and pernicious against the Arguments of Eudaimon-Johannes Against which not Ducaeus but Eudaimon-Johannes doth rail sufficiently FINIS
afore-mentioned from whence after Mass was ended being recalled by D'Anvil he came into the Chore again and kissing his new Bride before the King Queen and the Brethren when they had entertained one another some little while with discourse they returned into the Bishop's Palace where dinner was provided And I well remember when as Mass being ended I was admitted through the rails into the Chore and standing nigh to Coligni while I fixed my eyes upon him and curiously observed him I heard him say discoursing with d'Anville and looking up to the Ensigns fastned up and down and the sad Monuments of the Battel of Bassac and Moncountour That ere long these being taken down others more pleasing should be set up in their places which words then he meant of the Low-Country War which as he thought was now resolved upon others interpreted as though he had thoughts of a new Civil War which he so much abhorred 7. After Dinner they went into the Palace where a royal Supper was prepared and all orders of the City and the Senate together with the Courts of Accounts Customs and Treasury are entertained according as is usual in a most sumptuous manner a short time was spent in dancing afterwards interludes were brought in The representation of three Rocks silvered over upon which the three Brethren the King the Duke of Anjou and Duke of Alanson did sit and seven more upon which Gods and Sea-monsters were set which followed being drawn along in Coaches and were brought through the great Hall of the Palace which was divided by a triumphal arch in the middle and when they made a stand some choice Musitians recited Verses in their own Tongue composed by the best of their Poets And thus a great part of the night being spent in interludes they afterwards betook themselves to their rest The next day being not able to rise before the Sun was got high at three a clock after-noon they went to dinner at the Duke of Anjou's Palace where after dancing they went toward the evening to the Louvre The day following being Wednesday running at Tilt and interludes which had been a long while in preparing were exhibited at the Cardinal Bourbon's Palace there were represented upon the right hand the Mansions of the blessed and a little below the Elysian-fields possessed by 12 Nymphs on the other side on the left-hand was represented Hell flaming with fire and brimstone and full of sprights and frightful ghosts The Brethren the King the Duke of Anjou and the Duke of Alanson defended Paradise as they called it which many Knights Errant seeking to break into of whom Navar was Captain they were every one of them repulsed and at last thrown headlong down into Hell Then Mercury riding upon a Cock and together with him Cupid came sliding down to the defendants and then after much discourse with them returned into Heaven Then the three defendants came to the Nymphs wandring in the pleasant green fields and led them into the middle of the Hall where the Spectators were with much pleasure entertained with new Dances about the Fountain for a full hour Then the defendants being prevailed upon by their entreaties the Knights Errant that were shut up in Hell were released who presently in a confused skirmish break their spears at last the Gunpowder that was laid by pipes about the Fountain being fired fire broak forth with a great noise and consumed all their Scenes and so all departed This shew was variously interpreted for that the assailants who were most of them Protestants did in vain attempt to get into the seats of the blessed and were afterwards thrust down into Hell for so they put a mockery upon the Protestants and others did bode that it portended some mischief However certain it is that Francis E. of Momorancy whether suspecting some evil or being indisposed by reason of the tossing of the Sea as lately returned from his Ambassy in England having obtained leave of the King went to Chantilly for his healths sake leaving in the Court Henry d'Anville Carolus Meruvius and Gulielmus Thoraeus his Brethren and that very happily for that most Illustrious Family V. Da. p. 370. for it was the general opinion that the plotters of the following Massacre would have comprehended them all in this conspiracy had they not feared that Momorancy who was now absent would have revenged it The next day being Thursday there was running at Tilâ—s held in the Court-yard of the Louvre in which on the one side the King and his Brethren together with the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Aumale in the habit of Amazons and on the other side the King of Navar with his party in Turkish habits contended with their launces Scaffolds being set up on either side from which the Queen-Mother the King's Wife Lorain and all the Court-Ladies beheld the sports 8. Two days before the Counsel concerning the Massacre being not yet concluded the King with great shew of kindness bespeaks Coligni thus You know Father so he called him upon the account of his age and honour what you undertook to me that you would offer no injury so long as you are at Court to the Guises and they again engaged that they as they ought would behave themselves toward you and yours honourably and modestly I repose very great trust in your words but I have not the like confidence in their promises For besides that I know the Guises do by all means seek revenge I know their daring and haughty nature and in what favour they are with the people of Paris It would be a very great grief to me if they who under pretence of coming to the Marriage have brought with them a great party of souldiers well appointed should attempt any thing to your hurt for that would be an injury to my self Therefore if you think it expedient I think it convenient that the Regiment of the Guards be drawn into the City under these Commanders then he named those who were no way suspected who if any turbulent persons attempt any thing may be ready at hand to secure the publick Peace To such friendly discourse Coligni easily yielded his assent out of a desire of domestick Peace and being already overcome by the Court-flatteries therefore a Regiment is drawn within the walls without any suspition of the Protestants 9. This being done they enter into Counsel * Lib. 51. He mentions a former Consultation between the Queen-Mother Anjou Cardinal Lorain Aumale Guise Birage and others in the same Chamber wherein Guise was afterwards by the King's Command killed and afterwards in the same buildings where the King himself Henr. 3. here called Anjou was murthered by a Fryer again and after some debate the thing was left undetermined their opinions varying according to the condition of places and of the persons admitted to the Council For thus it was discoursed before the King with whom were in Council the Queen-Mother the Duke of Anjou and