Luther's and Calvin's ought to have been besides we of the Reformed Religion do not so absolutely reject all Tradition as not to accept of it according to the famous expression of Vincent of Lerins When the Tradition is Universal in all Times and in all Places LXIV He pretends to justify Cardinal de Bellay's words concerning the Zealous Catholicks as if by the Zealous were to be understood the False Zealots But this same expression without any such qualification returns so often in his third and fourth Tomes always indeed when he had occasion to speak of the Rebels in England that I have reason to believe that he adds this of False Zealots now because he dares not say otherwise when he is forced to explain himself but his hardiness in denying that the Sorbon in the time of the League or that Cardinal Perron in his Harangue to the third Estate did own that doctrine of deposing Heretical Princes is no surprise to me since it comes from him for I can assure him that I am past the being amased at his Ignorance or his Confidence either in asserting or denying If any Protestants have failed in their duty of their Princes it was not an effect of their Religion as it is in the Church of Romes it being decreed by a General Council that Popes may depose Heretical Princes and absolve their Subjects from their Allegeance So that Papists when they rebel act as good Papists whereas Protestants that rebel act against their Principles and as bad Protestants LXV Mr. Varillas appeals to all those who do him the honour to read this Book It is certain that those who read it do him more honour than they do themselves He says here that two years had passed after King Henry's Marriage with Anne Bullen when the Cardinal de Bellay was in England whereas it is clear that only one year had passed for she was married the 14. of November 1532. and the Cardinal de Bellay came to London in November 1533. but so small a fault as two years for one is inconsiderable and tho he had himself in his History said that she was married the 22. of November 1532. yet now when a turn was to be served by a bold denial he was more hardy than to stick either at contradicting himself or me but tho he will perhaps be easily reconciled to himself yet I am not so ready to forgive such faults He accuses me for having said That the Pope had sent a formal Assurance to the King that he would Judge in his Favour I cited for this in my History an Original Letter of the Archbishop of York's and of Tonstal Bishop of Duresm that affirm positively that the Pope had promised that he would judge for the King against the Queen if he would but send a Proxy to Rome because he knew his Cause was good just This and F. Paul's History of the Council of Trent are two such Authorities that I will forgive him every thing that he advances on such grounds He ends this Article with his ordinary stile of boasting his having read all the Original Letters of Cardinal de Bellay that are in Mr. de la Moignon's hands and I believe this as I do the rest of what the affirms LXVI He denies he had said that for which I had cited him concerning the passages into Italy being stopt by the Emperour's Garrisons and he hoped his Readers would believe him when they saw a Quotation of almost a Page out of him in which that is not to be found but he just begins his Quotation at the words that follow a whole Page that he had spent upon that for which I had cited him This is a Confidence in Disingenuity that never man that I know of assumed before himself and I beg the Readers to turn his Book here and examin this for by this one essay they may judge of his Sincerity It is in the 287. Page of the Edition of Amsterdam he begins to cite the last words of the Page and passes over the half of a Page that went before because it contained that which I had mentioned and which he here denies and says he never thought it and upon this single point I desire that his sincerity may be measured The comparing his History and my Reflections and his Answer in this particular will be no great trouble and I promise my self that most Readers will be so complaisant as to grant me this Favour for I cannot bring my self to submit to the labour of copying out so much impertinence LXVII He had set down Queen Catherine's death after the Session of Parliament so I reckoned that he intended to make his Reader believe that she died immediatly after now he owns that as I had accused him it was two year after the Parliament before the Queen died and he fancies to save all this because he had begun a linea but I am not bound to guess that a linea in his stile stands for two years all Historians carry on the series of time in their Narrations or if some remarkable Circumstances makes them at any time break it they warn their Reader of it and if warning is not given a Reader naturally reckons that the series goes on and that it is not discontinued by every a linea But he neglects the main point of this Article which is the false Date that he gives with his usual Confidence to that famous Session of Parliament that enacted the Breach between England and the See of Rome LXVIII He cites a whole Page out of his own History for he is here his own Eccho and tho every tittle of it is false he concludes it in these word Is there any thing here that deserves the least Censure But is there any Censure so severe as that he gives not here so much as his Florimond for his Garand So here again the Eccho speaks I had said that it is certain King Henry pretended not to have seen any thing that could any way disgrace Anne Bullen and he fancied I had said that he had owned this upon which he protests that he neither thought it said it nor writ it and that it could not be found in any page of his Books But I can assure him when I say it is certain I never think of him for his Authority and Certainty are the two things in the World that are the most opposite to one another in my thoughts I had denied that any thing had appeared in the Tilting at Greenwich but to prove the contrary of this he gives me two Arguments that are equally strong The one is that once at Naples something like this fell out and the other is Florimond's Authority and if I will not believe these two he leaves me to my Incredulity LXIX He says I shew a very good Opinion of my self if I expect to be believed in this point whether Anne Bullens Father was one of her
wanting in Judgment as he is fruitful in invention 6. He ought not to awaken the Memory of the pretensions that England has upon Guienne for if the Rights of Crowns are so sacred that no prescription cuts them off and that no Treaties can alienate them a time may come when a Chamber may be set up at Westminster as well as we have seen one at Metz to examine the pretensions of the Crown of England to Guienne which will be found less ancient and better made out than some that have been carried up to King Dagobert 7. But I would gladly know what Law of England has prescribed the measure and the number of years in which the Kings Ministers may enrich themselves but Mr. Varillas has found out Laws that we have not as he is ignorant of those we have and now I think I have given him good Reasons why I do not think fit to follow his Advice in the making of Prefaces IX He is so much in love with his Maxim concerning the Slavery to which he fancies Religion carries men in not suffering them to examin whether what they say is true or false that he repeats it twice so copiously that he bestows ten lines upon it in every one of these two pages 2. He cites a famous Calvinist that commended him for his sincerity in setting forth the handsome Actions of those of that party and who owned that he had not seen any of his side commend those of the other party with the like sincerity but since I give so little credit to Mr. Varillas's Citations even when he names all particulars he cannot expect that I will consider this much 3. But what sincerity soever he might have affected in his History of Charles the ninth which he did perhaps to gain him some Reputation that he might be the less inspected in what should come afterwards I am sure no Calvinist will make him great Complements for the future 4. Mr. Varillas's Defence of his Theory of the power of Religion is wonderful he says It seems I thought he meant only that true Religion had this power over the conscience whereas he is convinced by experience that false Religions have as much power over mens minds as the true has If Mr. Varillas were not of so singular a composition as he is the excuse that he ought to have made was that he only meant of false Religions or of mens Perswasions in matters of Religion but to say that Religion does this and now to own so plainly that the true Religion does it as well as false ones is an expression that is so contrary to all Religion that I do not see how Mr. Coquelin can answer to the Faculty for his licensing such a Book for tho the good man is utterly unacquainted with Historical matters yet he seems to have read Tertullian and he ought to understand a little Divinity now tho his competence in that is probably very small as appears by his way of treating me yet even the Catechism will inform him that true Religion instead of making us unconcerned in what we write whether it is true or false binds us to the greatest strictness of Truth 5. His second Excuse is of the same force He says that according to the Principles of the Catholick Religion after the Authority of the Church is once interposed there is no need of any ones troubling himself whether what She decrees is true or false since the Decision must certainly be true But the occasion that led Mr. Varillas to deliver this wonderful Apothegme was concerning Historical Matters of Fact in which Points of Doctrine are not concerned except he will conclude that when one is assured in Matters of Doctrine he may support them with lyes which he has indeed taken care to do even to a degree of Supererogation and after all it is to be reckoned among the Sublimes of Mr. Varillas that he expresses the assurance of the Infallibility of the Church by saying that one does not trouble himself to examin whether what She decrees is true or false If then this is the sense of his words they cannot belong to those Religions that do not own that Infallibility so that in short the Priviledge of not considering whether what one says is true or false belongs only to Roman Catholicks in which we have no reason to pretend to a share And if this is the Priviledge of Catholcisk Mr. Varillas must be concluded the truest Catholick in the world so never man used it in its full extent as he has done X. What he says of my History's being so partial is a Reproach that he does not confirm by any one Instance and I hope he does not expect that I will believe this upon his word He says if Mr. Maimbourg had lived five or six moneths he had finished his confutation of my Book But if it was so near being compleated I wonder that Mr. Varillas could not hear of any one of my many Errors which had been a more Important thing than the putting a Grand-mother for a Great Grand-mother or an Isabel for a Margaret He also tells me that it will not be impossible for him to prove either that the Papers that I have printed are not true or that the Copies of some of them that are in the Kings Library are defective This last is so important to me that the very apprehensions of the Discovery should make me dye of fear Certainly Mr. Varillas has no Friends that review what he writes otherwise tho he himself is very capable of writing extravagantly yet they could not let such things pass for it seems Mr. Coquelins Judgment is of the same sise with his own XI He threatens me again with a Conviction that shall be stronger than I look for I confess if any thing that is strong comes from his Pen it will be stronger than I look for But some one Instance had been stronger than so many Threatnings but he added here a little sprinkking of sincerity for he confesses ingenuously that tho he read all the Kings Manuscripts that were then in the Duke of Orleans's hands and were communicated to him by the late Mr. de Bethune yet he has drawn no part of his History out of them but out of the Authors that he has cited and is to cite in this Answer I assure him I believe one part of this Period that for all his pretending to have founded his History on Cardinal de Bellay's Letters he has drawn nothing of it out of good Papers for then it would have been quite different from what it is but I do not believe that he read them all over for how weak soever he may be yet his weakness cannot go so far as to make him fancy that a Florimond was a better Warrant for his History than Original Papers XII Mr. Varillas will still pretend to build on Cardinal de Bellay's Letters which he says were communicated to him
little unacquainted with the Laws of England for I have discovered his Ignorance in other things that are less pardonable yet he is so uneasy at this that he cannot bear my saying that such matters were above men of his form and upon that he says he does not know whether he or I has studied the Law most and no more do I but I am sure if he was long at that Study he has spent both his time and his money to very little purpose and if he is no better Lawyer than he is Historian I doubt he will hardly ever recover the Money that he laid out on that Study I assure him I will not compare with him in any thing and I do not know a greater Injury that can be done me in such matters than to be put into a comparison with him But to convince his Reader of his Learning in our Law he gives us another long Quotation out of Florimond which is all the rest of this Article LX. He justifies his saying that Audley the Chancellour was meanly born he cites an Author that had mentioned the mean-birth of a Chancellour and says this was necessary for the History to shew what a sort of men King Henry imployed but what needs all this I had only said that the raising a man of a mean-birth to that post ought not to be taken notice of as a very extraordinary thing since it is very ordinary to see men of the Profession of Law raised upon their merit to that Dignity If he had been to write that Audley's life I acknowledge he must have mentioned his Birth but since his Hero Chancellour More was of no better extraction I am not yet convinced of the Importance of this Reflection and Mr. Varillas will do wisely for himself not to examin too anxiously the birth of the Chancellours of Europe for this last Age but in conclusion a Quotation of Florimond's comes to set all right yet even in it Audley is not said to be a Churchman so here the Eccho did not repeat but speak LXI Here again Florimond is brought out with the honorable Character that Mr. Varillas assumes of being his Eccho which must pass for one of his Sublime Strains But here I must explain one part of my Book for some have mistaken my Reflections in one point as if at every time that I speak of Mr. Varillas's Religion I had meant of the Religion of the Church of Rome but they do me wrong for I mean it only of his Religion in particular according to the notion that he gives us of it that it enslaves a mans powers so far as to hinder him from examining whether what he writes is true or false All the rest of his Article is a sequel of such Impertinences that I grow weary to examin them as well as the Character that he gives his Florimond as an Author that is worthy of Credit against whom the English have never excepted But if they have always excepted against Sanders who is copied by him than there is no reason to expect that we should have any regard to him His Excuse for his turning the Affairs of Amours so ill is like himself this it seems went to his heart for tho I have destroyed his credit as a Writer of History yet there is some comfort left if he may be still considered at least a good Author of Romances LXII He thinks It is the chief of all the Qualities necessary for the writing of History to be able to describe the Intriques of great men in the matters of Amour and it he has not that as he reproaches me for denying it to him since I had allowed him all the good qualities of a Historian except that of Truth those who praise his works chiefly in this point are much deceived and then he justifies himself with a Quotation out of Florimond I will not dispute much with him whether the quality of setting forth Amours is the Principal one of a Historian tho I do not deny but in a Reign of much Dissolution this is necessary but I will add that this is the hardest to be found out unless one has lived in the time for those are matters in which as it is easy to slander so the only persons who know those Secrets are very shye of writing them and are generally men of Pleasure themselves and not much given to writing I have already satisfied Mr. Varillas by my retracting the praises that I had undeservedly given him but I find he would let that of Truth go and would compound the matter if he might but have the other Qualities allowed him but now I am worse-natured and will allow none of them to him and I as little believe what he says of the Praises that some give his works on that account as I do his other Quotations After this he calls me the rashest of all men this from any man but him would have put me in some disorder but I know his way of writing now too well to be alarmed at any thing he can say One should have thought that I had robbed Churches or coined money or done some very hardy thing to deserve to be called the rashest of all men but all is safe for my only Crime is that I had denied an Assertion of his so modestly as only to say I had never found it in any Author upon which he pretends to infer That to justify this I must say two things the one that I have read all Books whether printed or Manuscripts the other is that I have forgot nothing of that which I have read which two things says he very gravely are not found in any one man without a miracle Tho I should have thought that neither the one nor the other could be found in any man without a miracle and now is it not evidently made out that I am the Rashest of all men LXIII Here again comes the often named Voucher and after that comes another piece of our Authors reasoning I had shewed him that King Henry when he pretended to obtain his Divorce had argued upon the principle of Tradition which is so much considered in the Church of Rome and that it had been made out that the Tradition of the whole Church all down to Cajetans time was clearly of the King's side since the degrees of Marriage prohibited in Leviticus had been considered in all the Ages of the Church as Moral and Indispensable Laws so I had added that according to the Principles of the Church of Rome his Marriage with his Brothers Wife was Unlawful He reproaches me for this since I am of a Religion that rejects Tradition absolutely But still it made the Kings cause good against that Church which makes Tradition the only sure Expounder of Scripture for if the Tradition was here of the King's side then all Cajetans Reasoning against it was no more to be considered than according to themselves