Religion that had signalised it self with so much Cruelty I will not take upon me to play the Prophet as to the effects that the present Persecution in France may have tho the numbers that come every day out of that Babylon and the visible backwardness of the greatest part of those who have fallen are but too evident signs that this Violence is not like to have those glorious Effects which Mr. Varillas may perhaps set forth in his Panegyrick one thing cannot be denied that this persecution has contributed more to the establishing the Protestant Religion elsewhere and to the awakening men to use all just precaution against the like cruelty than all that the most zealous Protestants could have wished for or contrived and of this some Princes of that Religion are sufficiently sensible and do not stick to express their horrour at it in terms that they may better use than I repeat In a word Queen Mary in this point will be found to have the better of the French King She found her people Protestants and yet in eighteen months time she overthrew all the settlement that they had by Law She turned them out of their Churches and began to burn their Teachers and Bishops whereas the French King had not of that Religion above the tenth part of his Subjects and yet the extirpating them out of his Dominions has cost him as many years as it did Queen Mary moneths The other Article of the preference that Mr. Varillas gives his Monarch to Queen Mary is that whereas she could not do it without marrying the Prince of Spain the King has been able to effect it without the aid of Strangers If this were true the praise due upon it will not appear to be very extraordinary since he who has so vast an Army and is in peace with all the World has been able to crush a small handful without calling in forreign aid but on the other hand Queen Mary had neither Troops nor Fleets and very little Treasure so that her Imploying Strangers would appear to be no great matter yet so unhappy is Mr. Varillas like to be in all that he writes that it seems his Panegyricks and his Historys will be suteable to one another Queen Mary indeed married the Prince of Spain but she was not much the better for it for she took such care to preserve the Nation from falling under his power that as she would receive none of his Troops so she neither gave him nor his Mininisters any share in the Government of England of this he became soon so disgusted that seeing no hope of Issue and as little probability of his being able to make himself Master he abandoned her and She to recover his favour engaged her self into a War with France which ended so fatally for England that Calais was lost so that upon the whole matter she lost much more than she gained by the Spanish Match but as for her administration at home if some money that she had from Spain helped a little to corrupt a Parliament that was the only advantage that she made by it and thus if Mr. Varillas's Panegyrick is not better raised in its other parts than in this it will be an Original but I doubt it will not add much lustre to that Monarch nor draw the recompences on the Author to which he may perhaps pretend And if the Kings Parchment and Wax which he says procured an Obedience from two Millions of persons that were prepossessed against it by the most powerful of all considerations which is that of Religion had not been executed by Dragoons in so terrible a manner it is probable that Edict would have had as little effect upon the Consciences of the Protestants as it seems the Edict of Nantes had upon the King 's tho he had so often promised to maintain it and had once sworn it I would not willingly touch such a Subject but such Indecent Flattery raises an Indignation not easily governed Mr. Varillas in his Preface to his third Volum mentions no Author with relation to English Affairs except the Archbishop of Raguse who as he says writ the Life of Card. Pool I do not pretend to deny that there is any such Author only I very much doubt it for I never heard of it in England and I was so well pleased with the discoveries that I made relating to that Cardinal that I took all the pains I could to be well informed of all that had writ of him so I conclude that there is nothing extraordinary in that Life otherwise it would have made some noise in England and it does not appear credible that a Dalmatian Bishop could have any particular knowledge of our Affairs and if the particulars related in Mr. Varillas's 14. Book are all that he drew out of that life it seems the Archbishop of Raguse has been more acquainted with Swedish than English Affairs for there is not one word relating to England in all that Book and as little of the Cardinal But Mr. Varillas has shewed himself more conspicuously in the Preface to his fourth Tome he pretends to have made great use of P. Martys Works in his 17. Book but he gives us a very good proof that he never so much as opened them he tells us that P. Martyr delivered his Common-places at Oxford where he was the Kings Professor and that one Masson printed them at London some years after his death he tells us that an ambition of being preferred to Melancton had engaged him to that work in which he adds that if he is to be preferred to Melancton for subtilty he is Inferiour to him in all other things upon which he runs out to let his Reader see how well he is acquainted both with P. Martyrs Character and History All men besides Mr. Varillas take at least some care of their Prefaces because they are read by many who often judge of Books and which is more sensible they buy them or throw them by as they are writ Now since Mr. Varillas reproaches me with my Ignorance of Books I will make bold to tell him that the Apprentices to whom he sends me for Instruction could have told him that P. Martyr never writ any such Book of Common Places but that after his death Mr. Masson drew a great Collection out of all his Writings of passages that he put in the Method of Common Places so that tho all that Book that goes by the name of P. Martyrs Common Places is indeed his yet he never designed nor dictated any such Work and this Mr. Masson has told so copiously in his Preface that I have thought it necessary to set down his own words Ergo quemadmodum in amplissima domo rebus omnibus instructissima non omnia in acervum unum indistincta cumulantur sed suis quaeque locis distributa seponuntur ut in usus necessarios proferri possint ita in tantis opibus quas sedulus ille Dei Oeconomus
Ecclesiae Dei comparaverat operae pretium me facturum existimavi si ordine aliquo omnia disponerem notisque additis indicarem unde à studiosis quibusque suo tempore depromi possint hoc autem meum judicium multo magis mihi probatum est cum in eadem sententia ipsum D. Martyrem fuisse intellexi Sic enim à D. Ioanne Gravilla quâ— tempore D. P. Martyris domesticus una cum multis aliis ejus consuetudine colloquiis frueretur ab illo quaesitum aliquando fuisse quare locos communes uno volumine collectos cudendos non curaret Hoc enim Ecclesiae Dei fore utilius a piis quibusque magnopere desideraxi cum iis quae dicta fuerunt annuisse idque si per otium liceret se aliquando facturum recepisse quod utinam illi prestare dedisset Dominus neque enim dubium quin limae labore addito multarum rerum accessione longe cumulatiores opes Ecclesia Dei habitura fuisset id autem cum ipsi minime licuâ—rit And if after all these discoveries Mr Varillas can find men that will still read his Books and believe them it must be said that the Age deserves to be imposed upon There is another particular set forth in this Preface that is of a piece with the former He tells us he has drawn that which is most curious in his twentieth Book out of Commendons Negotiation in England of which he gives us this account Pope Iulius the third writ to Cardinal Dandino ordering him to send some able man secretly over to England to confirm the Queen in her resolution of reconciling England again to the See of Rome He upon that sent over Commendon who went to London in disguise but by accident found one Iohn Lee a Privy Councellor who procured him a secret Audience he had many Conferences with the Queen who trusted him with her Secret which was that she believed she could never re-establish the Catholick Religion unless she married the Prince of Spain and by that means engaged the House of Austria to assist her with their Troops but tho Commendon could not doubt that the Popes Intention was that she should marry Cardinal Pool and not raise Spain too much by so great an accession yet he had been sent over in hast and had no Instructions relating to that matter so he complied with the Queens Inclinations for the Spanish Match of which she spoke to him every time that she gave him audience so that he saw into that Sectret and had credit by that means to soften most of the Articles which would otherwise have been of great prejudice to the Court of Rome Mr. Varillas can pretend no Warrant for this part of his History but Gratians Life of Commendon and if this be the most curious part of his 20. Book we may conclude what judgment we ought to make of the rest Commendon was in London when the Duke of Northumberland was executed which was the 22. August he had been sent from Brussels some days before that and by consequence he was sent by Cardinal Dandino of his own motion as Gratian represents it For King Edward died the sixth of Iuly and it was 10. dayes after that before Queen Mary was in possession so here there will not be time enough for sending notice to Rome and receiving orders from it 2. Lee was a Servant of the Queen's and no Privy Councellor 3. The Queen never mentioned the Spanish Match to Commendon on the contrary she rather intimated to him her design for Cardinal Pool for she asked him if the Pope could not dispence with his marrying since he was only in Deacons Orders which is confessed elsewhere by Mr. Varillas 4. It does not appear by Gratian that Commendon saw the Queen often for as the thing was a great secret and by consequence many audiences given by a Lady that was so scrupulous as she was could not be long concealed so on the other hand no doubt Commendon pressed a dispatch all that was possible knowing what a step such a piece of news must be to the making his Fortune in Rome 5. Nor does it appear that there was the least motion yet made in the Match with Spain and the first proposition that I could find of it was in a Letter writ by the Q. of Hungary in the Emperours name and subscribed by him for he was then lame of the Gout and dated in the beginning of November 6. Mr. Varillas represents Queen Mary very ready to discover her greatest Secrets when she would trust an unknown Man sent to her by the Legate in the Emperours Court with a matter of such Consequence There was no danger in trusting him with her design of reconciling her self to the Court of Rome for he that was a Creature of that Court was not to be suspected in that matter but it had been a strange loosness of Tongue in her to have blobb'd out such a Secret to such a Person so that the preference he gives his King to so weak a Woman will lose much of its grace And thus by this Essay it appears that Mr. Varillas holds on his Method of writing and that he does not so much as take care to write his Prefaces correctly I. Mr. Varillas will shew that he knows Genealogies as well as he does the other parts of History for he tells us that Henry the Sevenths Queen that was the Heiress of the House of York had no Kinswoman of that Family nearer to her than her Couâ—â—n-German Margaret This is strange Ignorance for she had a Sister that married to Courtney Earl of Devonshire who was Mother to the Marquis of Exeter that was executed under Henry the Eighth Now he should have known this that so he might have given a stroke upon it against the Memory of that Prince II. He sets out Cardinal Pools great vigour in speaking so freely to the King against his Divorce that he once intended to put him to death but he pardoned him in consideration of the Compliance of his Mother and Brethren and so he was sent by his Family to study at Padua All this is a Fiction that was not so much as thought on till many years after the persons concerned were dead that Cardinal in his Book had no regard neither to K. Henry's Royal Dignity nor to the relation in Blood that was between them but treated him as a Pharaoh and a Nebuchadnezzar yet he upbraided him with no such thing tho it had been a very natural Apology for all that Freedom that he then took if he could have alledged that he had expressed himself first so plainly to him in private But so far was the Cardinal from such a behaviour that â—e complied with the Clergy in acknowledging the King to be the Supream Head of the Church of England For Pool in his Book tells the King that â—e was in England when that Submission was made and adds that
to this to put in his Panegyrick LXXII He goes on with his Romance and tells us that Queen Mary writ back to the Emperour a more Heroical Answer than can be found among all the Letters of the Crowned Heads of the last Age She told him what Wonders of Providence She had hitherto met with and that therefore She was more bound than any other not to be unthankful and to conclude with a soft period She said She would be guilty of as many Crimes â—s She lived minutes without acquiting her self of her duty These effects followed on those words She repealed by Authentical Acts all that had been done by her Father or her Brother to the prejudice of the Catholick Religion and tho She had reason to fear the Malecontents of some who having lived long without Religion would not willingly receive again that yoke which they had thrown off yet She reduced them all with more haughtiness than the most esteemed and the most absolute Prince that ever reigned in England She dismissed the Armed Companies that were about her She renounced the title of Head of the Church of England and re-established the Exercise of the Catholick Religion every where And it is to be considered that all this was done in the year 1553. and before Haviets Rebellion Mr. Varillas would make his Reader believe that Queen Mary was a Heroine indeed and he carries the character as high as he can that so when he comes to write his Panegyrick all the Praises he has bestowed on her may give so much the more lustre to his Monarch who after all is to be preferred to her for tho she excelled all the Crowned Heads of the last Age yet she must come humbly lay down all her Glory to enrich the Panegyrik of one of the Princes of the present 2. Mr. Varillas would make us believe that he saw both her Letters and the Letters of all the other crowned Heads of the last Age I believe both is alike true 3. Those soft and melting Periods that he gives us out of her Letter have a sort of an affected Eloquence in them that may pass from a man like Mr. Varillas but they have not that native Beauty and Greatness that is the stile of those that are born to command 4. If our Author had examined Queen Mary's Letters he would have found some of them of a far different strain he would have found her acknowledg King Henry's Supremacy renounce the Popes Authority confess that her Mothers Marriage was by the Law of God and Man incestuous and unlawful he would have found her express her Sorrow for her former Stubbornness and Disobedience to her Father's most just and vertuous Laws and put her Soul in his hands vowing never to vary from his Orders and that her Conscience should be always directed by him and when her opinion was asked of Pilgrimages Purgatory and Relicks he would have found her declare that in all these things She had no opinion at all but such as She should receive from the King who had her whole Heart in his keeping and might imprint upon it in these and all other matters whatever his inestimable Vertue high Wisdom and excellent Learning should think convenient for her These were her strains while she was yet a Subject and under the yoke of a Father and of these the Originals are yet extant 4. All the change that she made the first year of her Reign was to abolish what her Brother had done and to bring things back to the state in which her Father had left them upon which Cardinal Pool writ her a Letter full of severe expostulations for he said this was to establish Schism by a Law 5. Our Authoâ— represents all these changes as made of the sudden before she dismissed the people that came up with her to London and as if she had done all by her own Authority whereas it was the work of three Parliaments one after another 6. The Queen kept still her Title of Supream Head of the Church above a year after this and in two Parliaments that she called she carried that among her other Titles and in the vertue of it turned out Bishops and licensed Preachers besides a great many other exercises of her Supremacy so far was she from laying it aside at first LXXIII Mr. Varillas after he had diversified his Romance with the intermixture of other Affairs returns back to England and lets us see how little the Queen was inclined to keep the Promises that She had made her Subjects for the day after her Coronation it appeared to the Curious that She had made some Infractions in her Promises touching Religion tho She had not yet been tempted to break the other She ballanced indeed whether She should marry one of her own Subjects or not Card. Pool and Courtney Earl of Devonshire were the only two that were left of the Blood Royal. Pool had many great Qualities which are set out as Romances paint their Hero's as well as Courtney's who was descended by his Mother from the House of York He was beautiful had a good meen and was so well bred that at two and twenty he was the most accomplished Cavalier of Great Brittain He spake the Chief Languages of Europe and was very learned His Mother had been Queen Mary's Friend that never left her day nor night and some have said that the Queen once promised to her that She would marry her Son But he adds That the Queen had owned her Design for Pool to Commendon yet after all Pool was near sixty and Courtney was very loose so this disposed her to the match with the Prince of Spain which Charles the fifth who had projected the Conquest of France desired extreamly in order to the accomplishing of that design A little after this he tells us that both Pool and Courtney were equally near the Crown Pool was the Grand-child of a Sister of Henry the Sevenths and so he was of the House of Lancaster but Courtney was the Grand-child of Edward the Fourth And now here are as any faults as could be well laid together in so few words 1. The Queen was not Crowned till the tenth of October and long before that time not only the curious but men as ignorant as Mr. Varillas saw how little regard she had to her Promise for preserving the established Religion most of the Bishops were by that time clapt up in the Tower all preaching was prohibited except by those who had the Queen's Licences and such as came to put her in mind of her Promises were punished as Insolent Persons 2. He says she had not been yet tempted in the point of Marrying a Stranger yet in his Preface he had set her forth as entertaining Commendon with her design for marrying the Prince of Spain and he left her in August 3. There were several others of the Royal Family and in the same degree with Cardinal Pool whose